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Biofuels Digest

Jim Lane | May 27, 2013

 

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Rain to push Brazil sugar output to later in year

Reuters
Tue Jun 26, 2012 5:42pm EDT

* Rain will help boost cane crop later in year
* Mills were kept from harvesting by rains early in season
* Mills favoring sugar production this year (Adds further details on report)

SAO PAULO, June 26 (Reuters) - Widespread rain during the first few months of Brazil's center-south sugarcane crush has slowed sugar and ethanol production and will push more of that output to the second half of the season, cane industry association Unica said on Tuesday.

Sugar output from the main center-south crush from April through mid-June fell 28 percent, compared with a year ago, to 4.89 million tonnes.

Production of ethanol over the same period fell 33 percent to 3.61 billion liters, Unica said in its biweekly crushing report.

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Feedstox biomass harvesting fleet nearly fully assembled

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By Holly Jessen
May 22, 2012

With the purchase of two new pieces of equipment Feedstox is prepared to begin executing contracts to harvest biomass in less than two weeks, says Jeff Roskam, CEO of the Kansas Alliance for Biorefining and Bioenergy. The recently purchased Challenger combine-baler combination equipment has a unique capability. “It harvests the wheat and bales in the same pass and the straw never hits the ground,” he said.

The equipment, which is manufactured by Agco Corp., can be utilized the same way in corn fields or to harvest switchgrass and miscanthus. Because the biomass never hits the ground, cellulosic ethanol producers would see 5 to 6 percent ash content. Ash is material that cannot be converted into useable product, including dirt. “Very few of these models are on the global market today,” said Todd Stucke, director of marketing hay and harvesting for Agco.

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Feedstox™ Purchases State-of-the-Art Harvesting Equipment

PR Web

Balers, combines to dramatically reduce biomass harvesting costs.

Wichita, KS (PRWEB) May 20, 2012

Feedstox™ (a KABB company*) has purchased seven new pieces of agricultural equipment as part of the nation's most advanced harvesting fleet.

The equipment consists of two Challenger combine-baler combination units and five Challenger LB34BXD high-density pull-behind balers manufactured by AGCO Corporation.

The machinery will be used to harvest biomass materials such as corn, wheat, corn stalks, wheat straw, switchgrass and miscanthus. KABB plans to lease the equipment to farmers, contractors and other parties involved in the harvesting of biomass materials.

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Biomass feedstock harvesting equipment modified

Southeast Farm Press
By Leanne Lucas, University of Illinois
Nov. 16, 2011 2:28pm

Researchers at the University of Illinois are making progress in the continual effort to develop sustainable and cost-effective processes for harvesting and collecting biomass feedstock.

Alan Hansen, a professor in agricultural and biological engineering (ABE) at the University of Illinois, is part of a team working with the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) to determine the main obstacles in current processes and equipment that could limit their application in biomass feedstock harvesting.

“Part of our work is to assess how well existing equipment functions and what modifications we need to make to this equipment to ensure that it can handle miscanthus harvesting adequately,” said Hansen.

“These machines are generally set up to harvest crops like hay and forage. There is some degree of uncertainty related to these machines working in miscanthus, which is a much denser, taller crop, or even switchgrass, a shorter grass.”

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Bad corn crop means higher food prices

Daily Herald
Article posted: 11/13/2011 5:56 AM
By Bloomberg News

U.S. farmers are reaping their smallest corn harvest in three years after drought damaged what was a record crop, driving annual prices to an all-time high and curbing an expansion in global food supplies.

The government forecast production of 314.7 million metric tons, 27.4 million tons less than four months ago, the average estimate of 30 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg showed. The cut is equal to output in Argentina, the second- biggest exporter.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture already expected a third annual drop in global corn stockpiles and the first in soybean inventories in three years, offset by an expansion in wheat reserves to the largest in a decade.

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Biomass harvester destined for overseas

Stock & Land (Australia)
MATT CAWOOD
12 Oct, 2010 10:56 AM

AUSTRALIANS have developed the world’s first high-efficiency harvester to chip mid-sized trees, but the investment’s first destination may be offshore.

The harvester, developed by Biosystems Engineering in Toowoomba, Qld, will in its final form be capable of chipping 50-70 tonnes of trees up to eight metres high in an hour.

Biosystems managing director and principal engineer, Richard Sulman, said the harvester’s unique attribute is that it grabs and chips the trees vertically, leveraging gravity to make the process very energy-efficient. The concept was dreamed up by Future Farm Industries CRC researcher Rick Giles, and made real by Biosystems.

The design will mean that for the first time, trees with a trunk size of 70-250 millimetres can be cost-effectively chipped. The inability to do this has been a major blockage to the development of a biomass energy industry.

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Challenges, opportunities lie ahead for biomass energy production

High Plains/Midwest Ag Journal

Opportunities and challenges are evident as the biomass industry develops new and innovative methods of producing renewable energy across the U.S., according to Texas AgriLife experts.

Scientists from Texas AgriLife Research and the Texas AgriLife Extension Service recently discussed ongoing biomass production and logistical efforts in producing renewable energy from biomass at a conference in College Station.

Members of the Rural Alliance for Renewable Energy, which includes AgriLife Research, co-sponsored the event held at the Clayton Williams Jr. Alumni Center at Texas A&M University.

From a logistics standpoint, biomass crops such as sorghum and miscanthus can produce high yields, but removing moisture during harvesting and processing is a big challenge, the experts said.

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Biomass Report

Convergence of Agriculture and Energy:
IV. Infrastructure Considerations for Biomass Harvest, Transportation, and Storage

Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST). 2010. Convergence of Agriculture and Energy: IV. Infrastructure Considerations for Biomass Harvest, Transportation, and Storage. CAST Commentary QTA2010-1. CAST, Ames, Iowa.

Read the report (pdf)

Oodles and Oodles of Biomass, Oh My!

DomesticFuel.com
Posted by Joanna Schroeder – August 6th, 2010

There are several barriers to the success of converting biomass to biofuels including harvesting, transportation and storage. But of these three challenges, one of utmost importance is not only how to store the biomass but how long can it be stored without compromising the feedstock?

The most advanced commercial scale corn stover to ethanol project in the U.S. is Project Liberty, a biomass project funding by POET. Ultimately, the plant will produce 25 million gallons per year of cellulosic ethanol, but how much biomass will that take? According to POET, the plant will need 770 dry tons of biomass (corn cobs, some leaves and husks) for each day of operation. Yet how do you store that much material?

This is the very question that the Project Liberty team is working on with researchers at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). They are studying factors at POET plants in Hurley, SD and Emmestburg, IA, like the heat and moisture content of the biomass bale to determine how different types of piles and configurations will affect the quality of the bale. The answer to this question will aid farmers in storing the biomass in their fields until it is needed at the plant.

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Logistics of harvest and transport crucial to biofuels

Southwest Farm Press
Dec 21, 2009 11:08 AM, By Ron Smith, Farm Press Editorial Staff
Third in a series.

Identifying and producing the right plant material for energy production is only part of a complex system that must be efficient if it aspires to play an integral role in the country’s biofuel industry.

Harvest, storage and transportation also play crucial roles, says Steve Searcy, professor and associate department head, biological and agricultural engineering at Texas A&M.

“Our approach is that every operation has to increase energy efficiency,” Searcy said during a bioenergy field day last summer at the College Station research farm. “We are studying the logistics from the field to the processing plant.”

Harvest, storage and transportation also play crucial roles.

He said solutions to some of the most pressing biofuels challenges will require new technology and that existing equipment for forage and silage may not be adequate. The ultimate machinery may be adaptations of what’s currently available or something scientists haven’t yet devised. He quoted Arthur C. Clarke to put the process into perspective. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

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Ethanol helps boost corn prices

Galesburg.com
The Register-Mail
Posted Dec 04, 2009 @ 02:08 PM

Corn, soybean exports to slow in spring.

Urbana — While the late, slow harvest and a solid rate of consumption explain much of the recent strength in corn and soybean prices, those factors do not appear to explain all of it. According to University of Illinois Economist Darrel Good, the market is well aware, for example, that the pace of U.S. soybean exports and export sales will slow dramatically by the spring of 2010.

“The seasonal decline may be much sharper than normal due to prospects for record South American production,” Good said. “The lack of profitability in the domestic production of livestock and livestock products and the sharp increase in availability of distillers grains point to weak feed demand for corn and soybean meal. In addition, corn and soybean acreage in the U.S. will likely increase in 2010 as a result of fewer acres of wheat and expired Conservation Reserve Program contracts.”

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Machines help move ethanol business along

AgWeek
Cole Gustafson, Agweek
Published: 11/30/2009

FARGO, N.D. — On Nov. 3, I participated in the Poet Corp.’s corn stover harvest demonstration day in Emmetsburg, Iowa.

Despite 35-degree temperatures and drizzle, it was fun to see a dozen different machines and technologies for collecting corn stover biomass for Poet’s cellulosic ethanol plant next door. All of the machines operated flawlessly, but economic implications varied considerably.

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AGCO to Demonstrate Biomass Harvesting System

Kansas Farmer
Compiled by staff
Published: Oct 22, 2009

Innovative system utilizes Hesston large square baler technology.

AGCO Corporation, a leading manufacturer and distributor of agricultural equipment, is applying its experience and innovation in harvesting and haying equipment to the development of efficient and affordable means for harvesting and transporting crop residue for cellulosic feedstock.

After several years of research and development, AGCO's first prototype biomass harvesting system will be demonstrated November 3 at the POET Project LIBERTY Field Day near Emmetsburg, Iowa. Project LIBERTY will produce 25 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year from corn cobs. POET is currently working with 14 farmers in the Emmetsburg area on a pre-commercial harvest, and biomass is a major area of interest.

The biomass harvesting system currently in development at AGCO is a one-pass system which marries proven combine technology and the durable, reliable Hesston large square baler to collect and package clean corn stover, corn cob and leaf mixture into a 3-foot by 4-foot square bale. The time-saving system requires just one pass through the field for both grain and crop-residue harvest. In addition, it provides a biomass product that has minimal silicon content (dirt) as compared to other collection and storage options.

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Agco seeks to use gov't grant for biomass project

Google News
(AP) – September 24, 2009

DULUTH, Ga. — Farm equipment manufacturer Agco Corp. said Wednesday it wants to use an Energy Department grant of up to $5 million for a project focused on the efficient collection and transportation of biomass to production plants for processing.

Agco will be working with renewable fuel producers and industrial experts who focus on bio-fuels and energy crops.

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Precision Ag Testing Of Biomass Crops

Precision Ag.com
Posted by Kurt – September 23rd, 2009

Biomass crops slated for ethanol production are gaining research dollars as scientists use precision agriculture remote sensing to study the issues and logistics of getting crops from field production to the biorefinery gate.

"A lot has to happen to a plant from the time it first captures sunlight in a field to being dispensed as fuel at the pump. For corn-to-ethanol, that path is fairly predictable, but for energy crops such as Miscanthus or switchgrass the journey is still through somewhat uncharted territory," said KC Ting.

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