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.

Recycling water "Own Means"

The place where my vetiver plants grow  is virtually surrounded 

by farms and farmers that, despite any legislation on  

the disposal of nitrates, dispose of the wastewater simply discharging it in 

holes in the ground, or better in ditches. 

Given that here the irrigation water costs 150€ for 45 days 

by the single hydrant (as a result of an effective 

privatization action conducted in recent years 

in a bipartisan fashion by any government and 

by each regional authority), I have decided to proceed 

as usual with "Own Means" to dispose of some pollution 

that ends up at sea (very close to the land in question) and save 

some money which, these days, for sure, will find better use elsewere.

 

The ditch bottom  retains a good 50 cm of water 

(for a flaw of execution) until at least July, 

I therefore devised a two stages system, able to filter the suspended solids. 

The first stage consists of a gravel filter contained within a 

concrete pipe that sat abandoned for years in the nearby field;

a submerged pump draws the water through the gravel which, this way is kept free of algae and 

mucilages present in industrial quantities, 

thus denouncing the strong presence of nitrates and phosphates. 

The second stage is built with a modified pump pressure aid  with 

two check valves, a couple of fittings, and filled with quartzite to operate 

a more accurate sand filtration of water. 

The chemical quality of water of course does not change, 

the plants take advantage of the nourishment excess 

and the excess of such irrigation is released in the watertable after 

a vertical filtering operated by the plant itself.

A double goal is so achieved: intercept pollution and save money.

Not just a pretty face....

Seeking basin lagoons

While trying to deepen my understanding of the vetiver potential to clean up wastewaters and at the same time to produce biomasses for the energy industry, I want to start a new course of studies which would imply the usage of one or more floating pontoons on any of the thousand lagoons existing in Italy, therefore I'm now seeking volounteers of any sort (private enterprises of public administrations willing to host these structures and follow them up, to cut the leaves and weight them in the growing season.

Anyone willing to contribute, can find me through the site Vetiver Sardegna or this blog.

Wastewater, new data

I had left half way the topic of wastewater carring high quantities of pollutin dissolved in it (Nitrates and phosphates).
I would like to pick it up again showing new data, more precise and useful in catering a rough idea on how to dimension the beds that dispose of this water rather than let it penetrate the water table.
Watts Bridge is a far away little community in Queensland, Australia, in there, a small avio field manages their wastewater in a reed bed vegetated with vetiver. Instead of pollute the soil, they produce biomasses.
The Vetiver Network International has helped designing the work.

Here are some numbers: the daily average inlet is 1670 liters the total length of the rows sums up to 80 meters for a total of 400 plants in 100 sq. meters.
The total Nitrogen measured at the inlet is 68 mg/l while at the end of the beds measures 0,095 mg/l
Phosphorus goes from 10,6 mg/l to 0,138 mg/l.

Dispersion wells, full tricameral tanks, careless empting of wastewaters, generate pollution in the watertable that in one way or another re enters the food chain.
Solving this problem does not necessarily have to be a cost; it can be transformed in a resource and generate income: I can't help thinking of bovine stables: they can reuse the wastewaters and lower the costs of their forage using the biomasses produced from vetiver reed beds into a feed base for their cattle, saving money used for producing equivalent weight of more costly forages.

A careful management with frequent cuts will also improve the strong taste that this forage has.

Looks like a clever idea to me.....

To see the work, have a look at this....

Wastewater Treatment

The Vetiver Network International has produced this very useful presentation for all those intrested in waste water treatment.

Wastewater Treatment with vetiver

A reader which I'm thankful to, incites me to go ahead and deepen the information regarding waste water treatment, I see that this area is raising interest for the lesser costs than other tecniques and several benefits can be obtained at the same time...
Let's say we want to treat the tricameral effluent of a household: two methods can be used according to the quantity of water to be treated: water recycle or effluent absorbtion.
Different designs are applied: the effluent absorbtion consists in excavating a trench, cover the inside with a layer of thick insulating material, fill back in the spoil and vegetate it with vetiver plants: the available moisture is distributed by a pipe underneath and totally absorbed by the plants. There is no output.
This application allows to grow biomasses with the discarted waters that can be easily converted in energy or fertility in the fields.

The other option consists in ponds(natural or constructed) where the waste water stay for at least ten hours, this period of time is subjected to change according with the seasonal temperatures. An interesting contribution to this can be viewed here.
Naturally by applicating these principles, we are creating an eco-system where many factors will gladly associate creating nuisances and benefits: mosquitoes, frogs, fish, ecc.
In Italy waste waters are disciplined by this laws.