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Fast-growing woods are focus of German Institute’s research

By MEGGIE I. FOSTER
Assistant Editor

POTSDAM, Germany — As a nation concerned about its energy future and climate change, a German research organization – the Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering (ATB) - has vowed renewed dedication to renewable energy research, working to develop new processes and solutions from agricultural resources.
By combining scientific and engineering findings, ATB aims to ensure that newly developed processes and technical solutions are profitable for both manufacturers and farmers, while remaining environmentally-friendly and sustainable, according to Dr. Reiner Brunsch. Specific research in the field of agricultural engineering includes renewable resources, biomass for energy and bioplastics.
“We serve as the experimental farm of the Agricultural University of Berlin,” he added. “Our task is to create the scientific basis for new technology for sustainable land use purpose as well as develop technical solutions or prototypes.”

More specifically, ATB, a 50-hectare complex, is researching plants that are suitable for bioenergy production such as willow, poplar, hemp, cattle manure, hog manure, silage and wood chips.
“Whatever contains carbon, we can test – because it has a certain amount of energy potential,” said ATB Public Relations Specialist Helene Foltan. “We’ve found that willow and poplar (two to three year crops) are quite suitable to grow for biomass production because they are fast-growing woods that can grow well on marginal soils.”

Since they are two- to five-year crops (corn and soybeans are annual crops), Foltan said that the labor needed to produce these trees is relatively low, however, the cost to remove and harvest these trees is high due to the use of expensive machinery.
With respect to the willow and poplar’s biomass yield potential, the Institute is also researching the use of fertilizer such as nitrogen plus straw ash or nitrogen plus mineral ash or nothing at all.
According to Foltan, incoming data shows that the poplar doesn’t require any nitrogen to maintain a steady biomass (energy) yield performance.

“We believe that the less nitrogen it takes to grow a crop, the more favorable it will be for biomass production,” she added. “We are evaluating the crop from production to storage – most institutions aren’t looking at storage, but we are. Say this plant produces this (X) amount of energy – we hope to give information to the user on sustainability of this end product and if anything is lost in storage.”
Additionally, ATB is also taking a closer look at the influence of climate change on biomass plants and the effects of fertilizer on greenhouse gas emissions.

“We want to offer sustainability advice for what farmers should do in any event,” Foltan explained.

Offering a diverse portfolio of research, clearly a key area of focus is biomass and how it can produce biogas for energy purposes while remaining sustainable.

According to young researcher Jan Mumme, the goal is to investigate new sources of biomass that provide a high fiber content for the highest yield, as well as invent new processing technology to produce biogas from such organic materials as corn silage. Additionally, Mumme, the lead on a four-year biomass study, discussed the combined energy potential of biomethane and biochar.

“Biomethane is a highly versatile energy source, whereas biochar can be applied to the soil as a fertilizer and be used for long-term carbon storage. Biochar, a charcoal material created through the decomposition of biomass during heating, is known to be stable in the soil for nearly 1,000 years,” Mumme explained.

Additionally, Mumme is researching enzyme mixtures such as those found in fungus in plant roots.

“We’re building containers to grow our own enzymes and it’s not really very expensive to do – something potentially that farmers could do on their own,” Mumme challenged.

In another quite different area of research, ATB is growing and processing hemp for energy and building material uses. Acccording to Foltan, hemp production was prohibited in Germany and the majority of the European Union until 1996.

“So there exists a tremendous lack of knowledge on how to produce and harvest hemp as a raw material,” said Dr. Hans-Jorg Gusovius. Currently, the Institute is researching new ways to utilize dry hemp fibers out of the straw hemp plant and produce an insulation type material, similar to particle board.
There are a few bottlenecks in production, he explained.

“After harvest, hemp must stay in the field longer than most crops in order to begin decomposing, which is needed for good separation of the fibers,” said Gusovius. “So a big challenge for farmers is trying to balance hemp harvest with other crops.”
The biggest potential so far for hemp, he added, is as a specialty “wood” product.

“We don’t want to compete with the wood industry, but serve as more of a specialty product. This is a lighter weight product based on density than wood,” he explained.

“This is just another opportunity we are researching for farmers – another crop – another income source,” said Foltan.

10/28/2009