Vetiver & Biofuel

On the 27th of August 2009, 150 years have gone by since the beginning of the oil era. Given the great availability and low costs, oil has given to its producers an enormous power which concerns avery aspect of occidental living and more.

With it, fertilizers are produced and with those supermarkets are kept open and people fed, medicinals, mobility, lubricants and on the top shelf energy, which allows the cold chain, food conservation and tap water. In other words has detached the human being from natural competition in its environment.

Whichever opinion is reported by the media, studies in depth of the matter have shown that the peak of the oil production has been, or is about to be reached.

The world as a whole burns daily some 85 million barrels of oil, given the barrel 200L and future trends leave little doubt: the sooner we kill the dependence from the drug, the better off we may end up as a whole, point is: how much of our lifestile will be able to mantain in the transition?

One Thursday, as usual I bought the Nòva 24 paper and I found myself smiling reading an interesting article concerning the danish Novozymes company: whithin 6 monts it will start the commercial distribution of a new product, made up by a combination of enzymes which promises good savings in the production of biofuels starting from cellulose: actually starting from agricultural scrap (third generation).

This solution allows to definetely detach the production of biofuel from edible goods which (besides ethical concern) has in the past affected the price of alimetary goods, especially in the south of the world.

In past times, I pointed at this type of solution (which is not a novelty), but this biotechnological application promises huge savings on the actual industrial process.

I'll take a furter step in suggesting a combination of applications that can be put into place at any scale level: to produce biomass starting from wastewater using vetiver plants:

It is of public domain the capability of the vetiver plant to live and thrive in swampy areas; quickly absorbing great quantities of N P and K, heavy metals, Hydrocarbons, etc. in the biomass above and below the terrain; notorious are also the applications on wastewater depuration which involve the use of Reed Beds: low cost systems which allow the transit of wastewater and its depuration, or floating pontoons sat on lagooning ponds.

Allora mi domando: perchè non combinare le due cose?

dovunque esistono acque di scarto diventa automaticamente interessante la produzione di biiomasse: bacini di lagunaggio, impianti di depurazione, fognature consortili e comunali; le industrie inquinanti, tutti avranno la possibilità di riconsegnare acque pulite all'ambiente e guadagnare molti soldi laddove in bilancio erano previsti alti costi: tutto ciò è talmente ovvio che immagino sarà inevitabile.

Speriamo bene!

Then the question I ask is the following: a huge mass of wastewater needs to be recycled and can be used as growing media, a great mass of biomass is derived from this action and can be converted in biofuel.

Why not combine the two issues?

The economic result of this combination presents an interesting potential for all councils, industries, land owners: when water will be paid by the liter and the fuel will rise again at an unsustainable rate, I'm sure that this will be then considered a very interesting idea.

Jeremy Rifkin's Third Industrial Revolution

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Vetiver and mass production: Update

Today I received the periodic update about the in-vitro propagation protocol of vetiver: 

here's the news: there were no major problems with bacterial or virus contaminations 

and only in one case 

a re-sterilization was necessary, the buds extracted started to grow and 

perhaps a month  the  proliferation phase will begin, followed by the greenhouse hardening of the first plants. 

Soon a first batch of plantlets Will be produced  in order to perform a field pilot test, 

maybe at the end of spring. 

Perhaps then, at the end of summer we will have obtained some genuine data on this promising chapter.

Many thanks to Romano and all the people involved.

Vetiver and mass production

In order to shoot dead all the obstacles that can arise and the difficulties to the spreading of the Vetiver technology, and in order to make more accessible to everyone and more competitive the hedgerow system, from today, vetiver Sardegna has begun a new path of studies: the in vitro production.

The final aim is to reduce as much as possible the cost of the single plant and uniform all propagation material to a standard that makes easy the use of mechanized planting.

With this method we will obtain to reduce the main economic obstacle to the spreading of the vetiver system: the cost of labour and propagation material.

Next season will be used to asses the costs and devise a method to mechanize the planting of hedgerows, plus a comparison with other methods of environmental protection.

Yesterday, 5th of November I have signed a preliminary agreement with one of the biggest nursery production sites; their work is mainly in the fruit tree production, I have found some very good allies, in love with their work and their mission, that will make possible this great project to come true.

Next spring, after a preliminary  period of  study of the material, we will asses together how beneficial this method will be to our work.

Emission Impossible

The Sole 24 Ore, yesterday Thursday 25th of September 2008, in the Nòva publication with the paper, a pearl of the editorial arena, had on the front page an interesting article: Guido Romeo wrote about the state of the art in the main fields of renewables: wind generation, solar, and geothermic: even though this are not my fields of election, some deep concepts caught my attention:

"Eco compatibility is the occasion to develope an Eco Design intended in a wide way, like a new economic sector, more dinamic and competitive because less dipendent by traditional production factors(...) intelligent webs of productive systems are capable to use one another's waste to thrive, and this thanks to research."

This is the most encouraging thing I've heard by an economist in a long while...and again:

" This is the philosophy of the ZERI (Zero Emission Research and Initiative), a network launched in 1994 by the economist Gunther Pauli, that has promoted many projects especially in the south of the world.(...) At Turin's Politecnico University, are active some Design masters which share the ZERI's principles in order to have architects and engineers growing into it.

Fritjof Capra, founder of the Center for ecoliteracy at Berkeley, California: "The applications of what I call Leonardo's eco design are extremely vast because are based on the comprehension of natural phenomena "

Capra states the necessity of facing the energetic issue and the environmental problem in an integrated way looking at the earth system as a whole, just like Leonardo would have done, but applying the most advanced technologies and knoledges of our time.

Of course, if the legislator would take note of this thoughts, our work would be greatly helped...

Vetiver biomass: second milling test

This second test was conducted with a forage mill:

as obvious, the machine is too small to chop large

quantities of biomass, but was the only one of

that kind available at the time; there are much

bigger ones. What really counts is that the chopping

is performed on the horizontal axis as compared

to the insertion direction of the biomass.

This fact guarantees a much stronger coherence

if compared to the previous test.

The result was much more satisfactory than the

previous one; next year I'll chop a large quantity 

of leaves and stems with a much larger mill. also 

the timing of the operation will be an interesting 

data to account for.

Vetiver biomass: milling test

First milling test performed in order to obtain 

heater grade chopped biomass:

Just about 30 Kg of biomass have been transformed.

The objective is to find a tool (power or engine) that chops 

leaves and stems down to the correct size for burning in an 

automatic biomass heater.

The point is, besides the size, that the product has to be 

coherent.

No further operations will have to be needed afterwards to 

preserve economicity.

The result of this first test is not completely satisfactory 

because the product presents different sizes. To achieve 

a better result, sieving is necessary in order to discard 

oversize material.

The problem starts with the machine's work: the chopping 

is done on the same axis of insertion of the biomass: this 

makes also the machine prone to choking. The final product 

is part pulverized, part oversize.

Let's move over.

Biomass Calculation

I consider concluded the drying period of the biomasses obtained from the first cut performed at mid July. The total weight of all the biomass cut in the three test sites sums up to Kg 15.

The total length of the hedgerows considered for the tests are in their second year vegetation, are conducted with no irrigation or fertilization and were cut at 30 cm height, the total length of these rows  was  6m.

Therefore the weight per meter of dry mass is 2,5 Kg.

If we apply this data on an hectare consisting of 200 rows, spaced 50cm 

and 100m long the total weight per hectare of the

dry mass obtained is 50 Tonnes.

Biomass for boilers

We're almost there:
the biomass cut during this summer has dried up, soon I'll drop in at tziu Piero's (sardinian honorific title for the elderly) to try out with him the grinder to be used with the tractor.
If the dimensions of the chopped biomass will be about 2 cm, than we'll have the ultimate fuel for biomass boilers.

Leachate in the groundwater

Chatting with a friend of this matter and browsing the available material of the Vetiver Network, I bumped into this PDF document that sums up the state of the art of the research and of the realizations so far existing in Australia, Thailand, China, etc.
Leachate is the "structural evil" tightly connected with the old practice of burying the garbage in landfills. It drags with it all the worst of our lifestyle: acids, hydrocarbs, solvants, ecc. It is formed in the rotten heart of landfills and when rains fill up the containment, it spills into our dishes as steaks, vegetables, pasta, ecc.
Many studies have been carried out on the theme, but structural prevention implies very high costs, not to talk about those landfills which are not authorized, uncontrolled put in place by people without a conscience..

If prevention is costly, the cure isn't.....

Biomass, a month later.

I want to show you a shot of the plants I have chosen to assess the weight of the biomass in one growing season; it was taken the 12 of August, 25 days after the first cut. The entire nursery hasn't received a single liter of irrigation water or a minute of rain since spring, nor has received fertilization. It is thriving on groundwater probably at 5 or 6 meters depth, and on the condensation of night humidity that the leaves drive onto the crown.
Consider also that the cut was done with a good month delay on the start of the growing season...

New start for biomass

Just to keep you informed, I wish to show you the regrowth obtained in one week after the cut performed to weight the biomass.

BIOMASS: first cut weight calculation

After an entire month on antibiotics, finally I managed to start the long promised weight calculation of the biomass resulting from the vetiver hedgerows in the nursery.
This calculation has been conducted on non irrigated nor fertilized hedgerows cut at 30cm height.
Today's result has been obtained choosing three sections, each two meters long, far apart from each other to have the certainty of the maximum possible variety of the subsoil within the land's capabilities (acquifer depth, soil type, past cultivation's residues, etc.) averaging then the weights obtained.
The weighted biomasses (accurate to 100g) are only relative to the first cut, therefore the winter vegetation and the spring one relative to rows planted 14 monts ago, so only just adult.
The sites have been individuated in a precise way so that next cuts will only regard the single plants allready considered.
Here is the data:

site 1 - 6.5 Kg
site 2 - 7.7 Kg
site 3 - 9.8 Kg

AVERAGE 8 Kg

EACH METER Kg 4

If we imagine to have 100m long hedgerows 50cm apart, the total weight would be 80.000Kg/ha
of mixed biomass dry and green more or less at 50%

With non irrigated young plants......

Energy from biomasses

An interesting piece has showed up on "La Repubblica" tuersday 15th of April 2008:

A research conducted by the University of Massachussets, found a method to produce 2nd generation biofuels, starting from wood chips and agricultural waste using the quick pirolysis method.
At the moment agriculture using this method could contribute in Italy, with the waste it produces, with a total of 3,6 billion liters/year of biodiesel, standing a total need for Italy of about 40 billion/year. Even if we considered half of the fuel produced as energy needed by the industrial process, we still have a theoretical potential of 1,8 billion liters/year of biofuel which accounts for just about half the goal set by the EU, and this without using a single gram of anything may ever enter the human food chain, therefore without touching the economic balances of the third world (and ours too).
This research depicts agriculture's present state, but DOES NOT consider that biomasses can be produced free by phyto depurating wastewaters: If we only considered the use of "technical plants" for the treatment of sewage in at least half of the 8000 councils present in Italy, this final data of biofuel produced would certainly be reductive

Here is the article written by Antonio Cianciullo
The technology exists, now let's find the political will to apply it....

A good chance

As often happens I relay ideas and paper articles that I happen to find about: here is a piece of the "Sole 24 ore" inserted in the Nòva section:
RENEWABLES PIVOTING THE III INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
In 2006 the investments in renewables, globally have reached 70,9 billion USD, increasing by 43% respect the previous year, and what about Italy?
With the arrival of "Industria 2015" something seems to move, but we are far away from being able to reach the goal set of 20% renewables by 2020.
Without an incentive politics open to all renewables, it will be tough; as usual we risk to sell top know how for projects to be done elsewere.

Rubia leads that path...

Cellulose, finally

The energy that the sun stores in the biomasses, has a huge potential: agricoltural residues and technical plants can partially fix the great crave for energy that modern living creates.
the most immediate way of extracting this energy is certainly the old way: burning.
To dry biomasses below a certain point presents less problems in comparison with other methods.
But, burning for heating poses clear questions about the origins of the fuel we use: even though the CO2 we inject in the atmosphere by burning was allready absorbed by the plants in the first place, other kinds of molecules can be present when the biomasses are derived from water treatment, soil decontamination, sanitary prevention in mining sites. The potentially dangerous chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals cannot be reintroduced in the air; therefore we have to be particularly cautious using biomasses derived from dangerous sites.
Biogas derived from the digestion of vetiver leaves, present other kinds of obstacles: I've noticed in my field work that cut leaves are tough to rot: they dry out and stay on the ground for a long time intact, even though this mulch is perfect, this indicates that the rotting process is slowed down by some substance present in the leaves, exactly what we did not need for biogas.
But Vetiver biomasses, are composed by 45,8% of cellulose, a carbohydrate that can be treated with low heat (about 40°C) and enzymes to produce alcohol with the simultaneous saccarification and fermentation method

ENERGY

The idea that I have in mind since a while, is to use vetiver to produce all heating and hot water needs for the rural household and the associated business activity in a sustainable way:

This noble goal can be achieved with the use of low temperature heating sistems posed under the floor, large heat accumulators, a technical room and an appropriate stove capable of trasforming the abundant biomass in heat.

Obviously the state of the art in environmental care is achieved when the produced biomass is cut from the reed beds that treat the waste waters of the enterprise and house or the hedges between fields..

This proper heater exists, can be fed with the usual pellet or almost any other properly dried fuel.

By designing the system for excess, you can also produce power that can be send on to the power grid.

This could be one good reason to bale veitiver.

It is not easy!

It doesn't seem easy at all to bale vetiver, the need of doing it may probably go beyond building a house:
first of all the hay has to be cut and left on the ground to dry, has then to be broken up passing it over a few times, then alleys have to be lined up.
The cut leaves and stems are stiff and they finish up to clog the baler with the result of a lot of arm work to be done. the author of the video claims that with a little luck you can bale some ten meters before the baler chokes....
On the other hand a feedback comment on the video reports that some mistakes have been done and the job could have been faster without them.
More work has to be done on the field to find a more practical way to bale.
But why bale it?

New frontiers: hay houses

It is nowadays frequent to encounter houses built with hay walls, Mr Werner Schmidt is an artist in the field because joints together great design and energy saving due to total insulation given by the building materials building this way is also remarkably cheaper..
A canadian, Cory Vitt, has produced, for the first time, vetiver bales and erected a wall with it, but with different tecniques than Mr Schmidt: the bales are posed together, coverd with wire mesh and plastered with a layer of cement. Here is the Photo gallery of the job, comprehensive of compression tests and final monument.
Enjoy.