Winter or double crops increase biofuel opportunities

For many decades farmers have been encouraged to plant cover crops in order  to reduce soil erosion, capture nutrients and improve soil quality. These cover crops are left on the ground and not marketed. The only difference with a double crop is that it is marketed and becomes a second crop for the year.

The above ground biomass could be a winter grain like winter rye, winter wheat or winter barley or could be an oil seed like winter canola or could be a summer crop.

By going for a double crop or a winter crop, one will increase the net energy of the biofuel produced as the advantage of  sunlight and nutrients for a wider, longer growing season help a farmer to increase the productivity of single piece of land by around 20 percent.

There are also advantages of planting winter or double crops from an environmental perspective. The roots  take up nutrients and prevent erosion during the time of year that gets a lot of rain in many places throughout the country. The plants will also add organic matter to the soil. Additional environmental subsidies plus a market for second feedstock as energy crop, will further help farmers to to go for biofuel crops.

 Salicornia :  A new wonder feedstock

Farmers would be able to create ponds and streams for raising shrimp and/or tilapia interspersed with Salicornia and mangrove which  absorb the waste from the fish reducing the amount of pollution that  travels through the waterways. The fish would be harvested for food and the Salicornia  can  be harvested to make biofuels and fish food while the straw of the plant would be burned in a biomass reactor to produce electricity.

Salicornia, also known as glasswort, pickle-weed and marsh samphire, is a salt-tolerant plant that is high in oil and protein. It is native to North America, Europe, South Africa and South Asia. An edible plant, it  can potentially produce animal feed as well as biodiesel on coastal land unsuitable for  conventional crops. The next step in the process is to see whether Salicornia can be grown in large quantities and if so, what the environmental effects will be on the surrounding ecosystems. The answer to these question  will help determine its  viability for biofuel production.

Way back in the late 90s and early 2000s the Seawater Foundation did a pilot project in Eritrea and recently The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Honeywell UOP, Boeing and Ethiad Airways announced a project that would study how to combine fish farms and biofuel crops to lower CO2, reduce ocean waste and produce renewable jet fuel. If this proves  successful, it will prove to be  a much more commercial ready process than some forms of algae cultivation.

Tribe pursues venture to turn waste into fuel

The Crow Creek tribal council unanimously approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding with EcoTech Fuels, a division of Victory Circle Fuels. The tribal officials are going to choose a site for a $39 million fuel production plant that would turn municipal waste to Torqazine, a fuel or fuel additive recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency which  produces greater octane than ethanol and burns a bit cleaner. The proposed plant  would convert 100 tons of landfill waste per day to between 200 and 400 barrels of fuel and also, like ethanol, the fuel can be used undiluted in flex-fuel vehicles or mixed with gasoline for use in all vehicles.

The Crow Creek tribe  are located in parts of Buffalo, Hughes, and Hyde counties on the east bank of the Missouri River in central South Dakota in the United States. The plant will provide  jobs to the tribe, ranging from engineering, management to blue-collar labour as most of the tribe's lands are leased to a few large ranching families, and unemployment is very high. The memorandum of understanding, puts the Crow Creek tribe s in line for 10 percent of the net profits in the plant produce fuel. Using the waste and/or biomass as a source of energy is certainly useful in management of waste.

Back