Flaman Rentals Blog

Farmer in Italy testing methane powered New Holland tractor

Posted by Flaman Agriculture Aug 11, 2015

Luca Remmert's farm in Venaria, Reale, Italy is testing the New Holland T6 Methane Tractor technology, which  is being developed with the goal of making farms self-sufficient.

Methane would be 30-percent cheaper than diesel. And for farms that produce their own bio-methane, the costs of fuel would drop to nothing. Bio-methane is a type of gas produced by the processing of organic waste — something farms have a lot of.

“When the machinery is ready, I will be among the first customers,” Remmert said recently at the farm, where New Holland was showing off the technology.

The methane-run T6 would hit production in about five years, according to New Holland.

For a farm to get the most savings out of it, it would have to be able to produce bio-methane, which has significant upfront equipment costs. In addition, the drive toward biofuels is being slowed by the sharp drop in the cost of fossil fuel over the last year.

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