CROOKSTON, Minnesota – A Crookston agricultural company is leveraging landfill waste in regenerative agriculture, partnering with American Crystal Sugar to turn sugar beet byproducts into fertilizer.
Bryan Boll, owner of Northstar Lime, said the driving force behind Northstar is to turn waste products into something usable and to nurture the soil farmers need to grow their crops.
“I believe in crop diversity, I believe in regenerative agriculture,” he said. “I think we need to take better care of our soil as farmers. And we only have a limited amount of soil, it’s important that we take care of it. That’s what drives a lot of the things I do.”
Northstar Lime began the morning with a presentation outlining the company’s origins and how it has evolved to where it is today. Boll led the presentation along with Chief Financial Officer Phil Schramm before handing over the tour of the Northstar facility to CEO Chris Bowles.
In attendance were members of the Crookston City Council, the mayor, members of the economic development association and people from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, including Basil Gooden, USDA Undersecretary for Rural Development. The USDA awarded Northstar a $4.4 million grant in October 2023 that was used for the project, and members were in attendance to hear about the progress.
I think this could really serve as a model for the country. People can see what’s happening here in Crookston, where products are being used that would normally end up in a landfill or not be used at all.
Basil Gooden, Under Secretary for Rural Development at the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Boll said his hauling company signed a contract with American Crystal Sugar 23 years ago to transport byproducts such as residue and lime – bits of sugar beet removed before processing or waste created during processing – to landfills. At the time, he heard that American Crystal would run out of landfill space in 23 years. Now that that time is over, he doesn’t want to see another landfill built. The lime that comes from the sugar stream is full of good stuff for the soil, he said, and could be used instead of thrown away.
“This lime contains nitrogen, potash, phosphate, zinc, boron and so on,” he said. “It is a waste product in sugar production, but a valuable resource in agriculture.”
In addition to the roughly 90,000 tons of lime American Crystal Sugar produces each year, other byproducts are wasted in the state, Boll said. Minnesota is the largest turkey producer in the country, he said, and the turkey manure products produce manure. There is also dairy, cattle and chicken manure that could be a valuable source of fertilizer. On the crop side, there are sunflower hulls, oat hulls, corn stalks and other byproducts that would normally go to landfills or be burned.
Northstar Lime began spraying the lime onto fields, but the material was sticky, dusty and difficult to handle, so the company looked for ways to better deliver the lime to fields, especially those outside of Crookston.
Northstar bought a building from Simplot in Crookston and converted it into its manufacturing facility, but Bowles said it is not yet fully operational. The facility so far has a biochar pyrolyzer, a machine that turns biomass into a black residue containing ash and carbon through thermal decomposition. Materials such as peels and beet pulp are run through the pyrolyzer, and the heat generated is used to dry the lime. Manure and lime are fed into a circular compactor, which consists of two steel rollers that push down 20 tons per inch, Bowles said. The materials become pellets that Boll said can be put into a spreader that almost every farmer has on hand to spread on their fields.
“The idea is to produce our lime and manure pellets in such a way that every farmer can use them and they are easy to distribute,” he said.
Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald
Gooden said it’s been extremely rewarding to see how the USDA’s investments have led to what Northstar has accomplished so far. In 2022, the USDA provided $500 million through the Fertilizer Production Expansion Program to increase innovative domestic fertilizer production, and by 2023, that amount is expected to increase to $900 million. In October 2023, Northstar received a $4.4 million grant through the program, and Gooden said it’s an investment in solutions that come from people who want to make a difference and keep things in their home communities.
“We’re just excited as a USDA to be a part of this,” he said. “I think this could really serve as a model for the country. People can see what’s happening here in Crookston, where they’re using products that would normally end up in a landfill or not be used at all. You’re talking about sustainability and regenerative agriculture, and I think you have all the elements that are really needed to take agriculture 50, 100 years into the future.”
Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald
