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07-25-2008 Amber waves of .... bioenergy .... crops. Sustainable Energy Farming? Send this Article to a Friend

Woods End\'s research farm under Will Brinton\'s direction has ramped up exploratory plots of bioenergy crops including dual purpose crops (in the picture on left is triticale, a crossed forage and high energy silage/methane crop), EU-rape seed for high oil and potential biodiesel (SVO or by processing), and native Cup Plant (seeds donated by Ernst Seeds). \"The goal is not to plunder the land for energy as some have presented these efforts, but to research and develop truly sustainable crop rotations suitable in this region and which include up to 25% of the harvest as bioenergy production,- and the nutrients are all recycled into the same farm ... a model taken from mixed-crop dairying that is suitable in the Northeast\" (W Brinton). \"We Americans are about 10-years behind in these areas of agronomy and energy, but we can make rapid progress with our innovative spirit in the farm community and our healthy sense of local-community enterprise\". Brinton estimates potential crop biodiesel yield at 1,200-1,500 liters/ha (300-400 gal/acre) which would presently put brassicas as more valuable than corn\".

02-15-2008 Compost Energy Index: Are Modern methods carbon negative? Send this Article to a Friend

An essay What\'s your compost energy index? - published this month by Will Brinton in Biocycle questions how much fossil carbon energy is being expended just in making compost. The article calculates energy inputs in composting in term of fossil fuel- largely diesel used in trucking, loading, grinding, mixing, turning and aerating, and concludes some methods cross the line into a net carbon negative process. Large turning machines may be a principle concern. Fuel consumption is measured in the range of 0.05 to 0.1/GpHP (gal per horsepower hour) and depends on the make and the load. The essay is based on Woods End revisiting of its 1995 USDA-PA compost study where updated tables show in 2007 terms what the energy cost per ton was based on the intensiveness of composting. According to Brinton, discussions about the value of sequestered carbon in relation to global warming tend to overlook the large fossil-energy inputs which offset the apparent benefits. In examples, turning twice a week meant investing 8.4 mBTU of energy to stabilize 4.9 mBTU of carbon (an energy index -EI- of 1.72). Bucket loader turning every two-weeks gave an EI of 0.88 and self-powered turner once every 2-weeks an EI of 0.51- in other words, all the way from negative to positive. See Energy Index or visit the Woods End bookstore for the Compost Intensiveness report.

01-22-2008 UK composts fail Consumer Agency tests - compare poorly to peat products. Send this Article to a Friend

An British consumer agency report sharply critcised UK compost quality this week, after independent growing trials were conducted. Four cultivars were ranked for germination, growth and vigor in 24 composts obtained on the open market. Only one of the composts could be recommended by the group. John Innes and Peat-based products out performed the green waste composts. The UK is under intense pressure both to meet EU deadlines for organic waste diversion as well as new targets requiring growing media to be peat-free by 2010. “There is still a long way to go before peat-free composts are of reliable quality" the Agencies garden Editor writes Gardening Which?. The Agency report did not show analyses for the composts, but in Woods End view its a predictable result: typical of immature composts, elevated in salts - two test traits that are significantly underrated in UK compost standards (and also in the USA). A Woods End study reported to ASA-SSSA(2003, 2007) showed green waste composts ranked lower in maturity and higher in salt and E. coli than normal manure composts. Gardening editor Thomas warned "...we have to balance the needs of the environment with the needs of our plants". Woods End comments - these are sad results since it is exactly what the Rodale/Woods End Matrix quality program is designed to prevent.

11-28-2007 Bioplasitic or no, if it looks like plastic, it is: "man-made contamination". Send this Article to a Friend

There is a new upturn in biodegradable plastics entering the marketplace due to companies making commitments to developing bio-packaging- basically plastics, which after use, can be composted completely to CO2 and water, and be non-toxic. These products must be tested in accordance to degradability norms, such as EN13432, ASTM-D6400 and ISO-148522, all of which Woods End Labs is equipped to perform. However, pieces of these bio-plastics possessing very high surface-area to weight-ratio, often end up in finished composts– and appear identical to regular plastic- in other words, a man-made contaminant. “Unless you take it in the lab and run FTIR on a fragment, you can not distinguish them from petroleum plastic”, according to Brinton. This means that the issue of physical contamination remains a high – and increasing - concern. New European scanning techniques for “man-made” residues help consumers and the compost industry understand and regulate this form of unsightly contamination. “Bio-plastic in finished compost can’t be excused as physical contamination simply because it is biodegradable”, Brinton remarks. Pictured is a lab scan of finished compost that had mixed bio-plastic and polyethylene. European guidelines are that compost must achieve less than 800mm2 surface area of man-made plastic / liter of compost – that’s a little over 1 inch-squared per quart of compost.

10-05-2007 Bioenergy Crops for On Farm Energy Production of Biogas- the next Generation Send this Article to a Friend

The theme of renewable energy from rotation-crops was explored by Dr. Brinton at the Renewable Energy Conference held Oct. 2 in Indianapolis. Brinton's paper, entitled "Bioenergy Farming- Sustainability Practices" outlined steps to adapt existing farm infrastructures to sustainable energy production by means of multi-cropping. Methane yields from bioenergy crops such as corn, sudangrass, and white sweetclover, singly and in rotation, range up to 3,000 m3/ha, equivalent to 6,000 kW/acre, if converted by CHP. Citing rising costs of waste processing energy- not only for corn-ethanol, but for modern intensive composting, which recent studies show require up to 100kw energy-input per ton compost-output, Brinton suggested that crop+manure biogas production could synergize if not replace these alternative processes. "We can't afford not to consider first digesting food waste to recover its very high energy content, instead of releasing it as CO2 and some waste heat from composting", he said. Woods End presented a paper the previous year showing the value of connecting composting to bioenergy processes, a practice unique to Europe. In a 1995 USDA project, Brinton projected that energy costs of composting were approaching untenable levels. Woods End Laboratory has commited a signifcant effort to buldings a state-of-art biogas lab and is growing bioenergy research crops and operating digesters on its farm.