Gov. Mitch Daniels pulled into Reynolds, Ind., Sept. 13 in his biodiesel-powered RV 1 to unveil BioTown, USA — a city that uses biorenewable energy sources to meet all of its energy needs.

"BioTown, USA is an aggressive plan that I believe will become a model for rural communities throughout our state and country," Daniels said. "We are taking challenges and turning them into opportunities by developing homegrown, local energy production to become independent from foreign sources; creating a cleaner environment; finding new solutions to animal waste management issues; and developing new markets for Indiana agricultural products and by-products."

A crowd of 250 gathered to hear his announcement and among them was John Motloch, director of Ball State's Land Design Institute, who is serving on BioTown's taskforce.

"The vision to be the nation's first town run by 100 percent biorenewable energy is highly innovative. It has the potential to bring in visitors from around the world to Indiana to see how the initiative is progressing," Motloch said. "This is an exciting opportunity for Ball State students and faculty, and we have the opportunity to play a significant role in this initiative that can positively impact Indiana communities."

The first phase of BioTown revolves around biofuels. Gov. Daniels announced that an E85 (85 percent ethanol) fuel pump would be located in the center of Reynolds to support the flex-fuel vehicles already in the town — and more flex-fuel vehicles are coming. The town has committed to convert its fleet of vehicles to E85.

The Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA), which oversees BioTown, is working with a vehicle manufacturer to get more flex-fuel vehicles into Reynolds and is also planning to convert many of the remaining cars and trucks in town into flex-fuel vehicles.

Phase II and III of the project include potential plans to transform animal waste from area livestock farms into electricity and natural gas. Set in a rural county, there are more than 150,000 hogs within a 15 mile radius of Reynolds, as well as several sources of organic waste products, making it an ideal location for a digester, manure gasifier or some similar type of technology to convert manure and biomass into energy for the homes and businesses in Reynolds.

"Our goal is to make Indiana a leader in the future of agriculture, and to do that we must be progressive in advancing new uses for our products and finding more environmentally friendly ways to dispose of our by-products," said Andy Miller, director of ISDA. "In our efforts to grow our livestock industry, we will not ignore our responsibility to the environment. Therefore, it is our goal to recycle manure and other waste products into useful inputs, and energy production is a good example."

(Note to editors: For more information, contact Motloch at (765) 285-7561 or jmotloch@bsu.edu.)