Biomasses, Shell Believes in it!

Over the past 5 years Shell has invested 1.7 billion dollars in 

renewables, and specifically not in wind power or solar, but 

in biomasses in order to find a viable alternative to oil and

continue to produce fuel for internal combustion engines. 

I drawn this information from a short article appeared on Wednesday 18 March 

on the Corriere della Sera (the major italian paper). 

I quote: 

"More specifically looks at alternative fuels to petrol, 

second generation fuels derived from biomasses, ie 

cellulose and non-cereals. It will have to mean something! " 

I do not love Shell or the world they represent, it must be 

noted that where they invest their money, probably, that will be 

the most likely future field of development.

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...

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......