Kilbrittain National School

Fourth and Fifth Classes' visit to Gro-Oil

Siobhán's parents are involved in a new and exciting venture at their farm in Tullyland. Along with a small group of farmers from West Cork, they are growing oil seed rape and producing bio diesel for sale.
OUr class visited the farm to see how this is done. Danjoe, Anne and Anthony brought us around the plant. At first we saw a sample of the oilseed rape plant, and then swas the stored black seed which was harvested in the Autumn.

These seeds are crushed in a screw press and the oil collected in a tank underneath. This oil is filtered several times, heated, and finally after having methanol and caustic soda added, becomes bio diesel - an environmentally friendly fuel which gives off no emissions.

The waste from the crushed seed is pressed into cake / meal -very high in protein and is sold to Bandon Co-Op as animal feed. Mossie gave us leaflets and samples of seed cake, rapeseed oil and Bio-Diesel. We learned so much from this wonderful trip.