IEA/CLAAS workgroup Harvest and other mechanical pre-treatments of lignocellulosic energy crops

The costs of harvesting energy crops constitute a major part of the total costs of the whole chain of energy crop procurement. In some cases the harvesting. storage and transport costs amount to more than 70% of total costs which makes the search for cost reductions in this area particularly important. Energy crops are often sturdy, and if energy crops are to contribute significantly to the energy sector, very large biomass quantities have to be handled. This requires strong and durable harvesting equipment. The harvesting methods and the way the crops are compacted influence the further transport, storage and energy utilisation characteristics of the feedstock. The state of the art of these aspects was addressed at a workshop at the company CLAAS. Germany. in November 1996. The main workshop presentations are included in the report on which this Item is based.

Objectives

This activity on Lignocellulosic Solid Fuels addresses issues of herbaceous lignocellulosic energy crops (mainly grass and straw crops) and has the following objectives:

• To collect and share information on lignocellulosic energy crops.


• To analyse and solve critical phases of production, handling and supply.


• To evaluate cost effectiveness and environmental impact of agricultural energy crop systems.


• To investigate ways of optimising feedstock quality by agricultural means.

The participating countries are Austria, Denmark, France, Italy, Sweden, the European Commission, and The Netherlands.

Activities

Since the group started collaboration the following progress has been made. In 1995, a mail box for exchange of activity related information was set up. Non-activity contacts are welcome to join the e-mail system where, currently, about 30 members are included. An activity workshop and study tour took place in September, 1995 on: "Biomass Requirements for power production: how to optimise the quality by agricultural management". The workshop abstracts were presented in an IEA report, which also included overviews on energy crop areas in The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Austria and France. Selected workshop papers are published in Biomass & Bioenergy 12(1), 1997. In spring 1996 the Activity was involved in the "First European Seminar on Sorghum for Energy and Industry" via the technical expert on Sorghum. During 1996 all activity members participated in a spin off EU project: "European Energy Crops Overview", and the activity co sponsored the "1st European Energy Crops Conference" in The Netherlands. The plans after this 1996 workshop on "Harvest and pre treatment of lignocellulosic energy crops" include a 1997 workshop on environmental issues of energy crop production, which is planned to take place in Italy in October, in co operation with Activity 3.1. At last, two further actions are considered: a) a conference in cooperation with the "European Miscanthus Network", and b) a visit to contacts in the US and Canada for exchange of experiences with straw and grass crops.

The CLAAS meeting

CLAAS were chosen as the host of the workshop due to their considerable experience in harvesting agricultural crops in general. and to their comprehensive development programme within energy crops in particular. On the whole, much experience has been acquired in Germany on the production and handling of energy crops. The largest European project on Miscanthus. for instance. has been conducted by Veba Oel AG. Germany does not participate in IEA Bioenergy and the second aim of the workshop was to stimulate contacts. The workshop showed that for many lignocellulosic energy crops the technical development of the harvesting equipment is at a very advanced stage. not least due to the work done by Claas.

The requirement is now for larger demonstration scale experiments of the whole bioenergy chain. in order to create opportunities for further developing the logistics which are equally as important as the basic technical development. Also in this area supporting equipment such as the AGRO LOG monitoring system for the management of machines and transport has been developed.