The essential function of a greenhouse is to have the right environment for plants to grow. Thus, good greenhouse design is vital. Among the features of a greenhouse is ventilation.
The greenhouse needs excellent ventilation to create a balance in the indoor climate, maximizing the sun’s power while maintaining the air quality and optimal temperature to ensure that the plants will grow vigorously.
Whether operating a backyard greenhouse or a commercial greenhouse, keep in mind that air exchange is vital, not only for providing fresh air and carbon dioxide so your plants can photosynthesize. It will also regulate the indoor temperature in your greenhouse in all weather conditions.
A good ventilation layout is necessary
You need a good ventilation layout so you can effectively cool the greenhouse on a hot day. Use exhaust fans to blow the stale, hot air out of the structure. You also need intake shutters mounted opposite the exhaust system to take in the cooler fresh air.
For a commercial greenhouse, the exhaust fan system should change the air between one to three minutes in summer, which will keep a reasonable temperature inside the greenhouse. If you have a small greenhouse, the system will only need one minute.
Your commercial greenhouse should also have complementary equipment, such as variable-speed motors, motorized shutters and louvered fans. There should also be roof and side vents to keep a steady supply of fresh air and improve the cooling of the greenhouse.
If the summers are long and hot in your area, evaporative coolers could be the solution. They will add humidity, cooling, and air movement inside the greenhouse. You can use evaporative coolers together with the exhaust shutters.
Ventilation tips
It is essential to understand the needs of your specific crops so you can implement the right combination to boost their growth. Working with an expert in greenhouse structures will be beneficial in providing you with the perfect growing space under all weather conditions.
Cooling the greenhouse with wind and thermal buoyancy is one of the concepts that has been around for ages. The concept uses louvers or vents that open to allow excess heat to escape while cooler air from outside is allowed to enter.
But when large polyethylene sheets became a popular covering for greenhouse roofs, placing the vents on the roof became a challenge. So engineers developed a system of using fans to draw outside air through louvers installed in one end of the structure and an exhaust fan system at the other end. The ventilation system using this method uses thermostatic control.
Hoop style greenhouses are more effective in providing ventilation using roll-up sides. But greenhouses with roof and side vents are more effective when there is enough space as the vents should be large enough to allow for good air movement. Many manufacturers are producing open-roof greenhouses. You can easily control the roof’s opening to maximize heat and cool air entry as needed.
Working with an expert greenhouse manufacturer will ensure that the structure will fit the crops you want to grow and maximize all the design features according to your location.
Biogas is an often overlooked and neglected aspect of renewable energy in India. While solar, wind and hydropower dominate the discussion in the country, they are not the only options available. Biogas is a lesser known but highly important option to foster sustainable development in agriculture-based economies, such as India.
What is Biogas
Briefly speaking, biogas is the production of gaseous fuel, usually methane, by fermentation of organic material. It is an anaerobic process or one that takes place in the absence of oxygen. Technically, the yeast that causes your bread to rise or the alcohol in beer to ferment is a form of biogas. We don’t use it in the same way that we would use other renewable sources, but the idea is similar. Biogas can be used for cooking, lighting, heating, power generation and much more. Infact, biogas is an excellent and effective to promote development of rural and marginalized communities in all developing countries.
This presents a problem, however. The organic matter is putting off a gas, and to use it, we have to turn it into a liquid. This requires work, machinery and manpower. Research is still being done to figure out the most efficient methods to make it work, but there is a great deal of progress that has been made, and the technology is no longer new.
Fossil Fuel Imports
India has a rapidly expanding economy and the population to fit. This has created problems with electricity supplies to expanding areas. Like most countries, India mainly uses fossil fuels. However, as oil prices fluctuate and the country’s demand for oil grows, the supply doesn’t always keep up with the demand. In the past, India has primarily imported oil from the Middle East, specifically Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Without a steady and sustainable fossil fuels supply, India has looking more seriously into renewable sources they can produce within the country. Biogas is an excellent candidate to meet those requirements and has been used for this goal before.
Biogas in India
There are significant differences between biogas and fossil fuels, but for India, one of the biggest is that you can create biogas at home. It’s pretty tricky to find, dig up and transform crude oil into gas, but biogas doesn’t have the same barriers. In fact, many farmers who those who have gardens or greenhouses could benefit with proper water management and temperature control so that plants can be grown year round, It still takes some learning and investment, but for many people, especially those who live in rural places, it’s doable.
This would be the most beneficial to people in India because it would help ease the strain of delivering reliable energy sources based on fossil fuels, and would allow the country to become more energy independent. Plus, the rural areas are places where the raw materials for biogas will be more available, such animal manure, crop residues and poultry litter. But this isn’t the first time most people there are hearing about it.
Biogas in India has been around for a long time. In the 1970’s the country began a program called the National Biogas and Manure Management Program (NBMMP) to deal with the same problem — a gas shortage. The country did a great deal of research and implemented a wide variety of ideas to help their people become more self-sufficient, regardless of the availability of traditional gasoline and other fossil fuel based products.
The original program was pioneering for its time, but the Chinese quickly followed suit and have been able to top the market in biogas production in relatively little time. Comparatively, India’s production of biogas is quite small. It only produces about 2.07 billion m3/year of biogas, while it’s estimated that it could produce as much as 48 billion m3/year. This means that there are various issues with the current method’s India is using in its biogas production.
Biogas has the potential to rejuvenate India’s agricultural sector
The original planning in the NBMMP involved scientists who tried to create the most efficient biogas generators. This was good, but it slowed people’s abilities to adopt the techniques individually. China, on the other hand, explicitly worked to help their most rural areas create biogas. This allowed the country to spread the development of biogas to the most people with the lowest barriers to its proliferation.
If India can learn from the strategy that China has employed, they may be able to give their biogas production a significant boost which will also help in the rejuvenation of biomass sector in the country. Doing so will require the help and willingness of both the people and the government. Either way, this is an industry with a lot of room for growth.
Biomass harvesting and collection is an important step involving gathering and removal of the biomass from field which is dependent on the state of biomass, i.e. grass, woody, or crop residue. The moisture content and the end use of biomass also affect the way biomass is collected. For crop residues, the operations should be organized in sync with the grain harvest as it occupies the centerstage in farming process.
All of other operations such as residue management and collection take place after so-called grain is in the bin. On the other hand, the harvest and collection dedicated crops (grass and woody) can be staged for recovery of the biomass only. In agricultural processing, straw is the stems and leaves of small cereals while chaff is husks and glumes of seed removed during threshing.
Modern combine harvesters generally deliver straw and chaff together; other threshing equipment separates them. Stover is the field residues of large cereals, such as maize and sorghum. Stubble is the stumps of the reaped crop, left in the field after harvest.
Agro-industrial wastes are by-products of the primary processing of crops, including bran, milling offal, press cakes and molasses. Bran from on-farm husking of cereals and pulses are fed to livestock or foraged directly by backyard fowls.
The proportion of straw, or stover, to grain varies from crop to crop and according to yield level (very low grain yields have a higher proportion of straw) but is usually slightly over half the harvestable biomass. The height of cutting will also affect how much stubble is left in the field: many combine-harvested crops are cut high; crops on small-scale farms where straw is scarce may be cut at ground level by sickle or uprooted by hand.
Modern combine-harvesters generally deliver straw and chaff together
Collection involves operations pertaining to gathering, packaging, and transporting biomass to a nearby site for temporary storage. The amount of a biomass resource that can be collected at a given time depends on a variety of factors. In case of agricultural residues, these considerations include the type and sequence of collection operations, the efficiency of collection equipment, tillage and crop management practices, and environmental restrictions, such as the need to control erosion, maintain soil productivity, and maintain soil carbon levels.
In Indian sugar mills, the frequent cycles of ups and downs in the core business of selling sugar has led to the concentration towards the trend of ancillary businesses, like cogeneration power plant and ethanol production, becoming the profit centres. These units, which were introduced as a means to manage sugar mills’ own byproduct, like bagasse, are now keeping several sugar mills financially afloat. Thus, the concept of ‘Integrated Sugar Mill Complex’ has now become a new normal.
Limitations of Bagasse
Bagasse is a ubiquitous primary fuel in cogeneration plants in sugar mills, which adds more than 2,000 MW of renewable power to the Indian energy mix. The inclination of cogeneration plant managers towards bagasse is primarily because of its virtue of being easily available on-site, and no requirement to purchase it from the external market.
This remains true despite its several significant shortcomings as a boiler fuel, prime among which are very high moisture content and low calorific value. As a result, the fuel-to-energy ratio remains abysmally low and the consequent lesser power generation is depriving these sugar mills from achieving true revenue potential from their ancillary power business vertical, which is pegged at ~10,000 MW.
Sugarcane Trash – A Wonder Waste
Though, there is a much neglected high calorific value biomass which is available in proximity of every sugar mill and is also a residue of the sugarcane crop itself, which could enable the cogeneration units to achieve their maximum output potential. This wonder waste is sugarcane trash – the dry leaves of sugarcane crop – which is left in the farms itself after sugarcane harvesting as it has no utility as fodder and generally burnt by farmers, which harms the surrounding air quality substantially.
Given its favourable properties of having very low moisture content with moderate-to-high calorific value, sugarcane trash could be used in most of the high pressure boiler designs in a considerable proportion along with bagasse.
Undeniably, sugar mills should not discontinue using bagasse as the primary fuel, but surely complement it with sugarcane trash as it would lead to an increase in their revenue generation and would also allow them to expand operations of their cogeneration plant to off-season, as using sugarcane trash with bagasse in season would leave more bagasse for off-season usage.
Hurdles to Overcome
Despite these evident benefits, the major obstacle in development of sugarcane trash as an industrial boiler fuel has been its difficult collection from thousands of small and fragmented farms. Moreover, the trash becomes available and needs to be collected simultaneously during the operating season of the sugar mills, which makes deployment of resources, human or otherwise, for managing the procurement of trash very difficult for any sugar mill.
As a matter of fact, the sugar mills which initiated the pilots, or even scaled commercially, to utilise sugarcane trash along with bagasse, had to sooner or later discontinue its use, owing to the mammoth challenges discussed above.
The Way Forward
Thus, in order to utilise this wonder waste, there is a dire need to outsource its procurement to professional and organised players which establish the biomass supply chain infrastructure in the vicinity of the cogeneration units to make on-site availability of sugarcane trash as convenient as bagasse and enable them to procure the rich quality biomass at sustainable prices which leads to an increase in their profits.
Burning of cane trash creates pollution in sugar-producing countries
These biomass supply chain companies offer value to the farmers by processing their crop residues in timely manner, thus prevent open burning of the crop residue and contribute to a greener and cleaner environment.
Indeed, owing to its favourable fuel properties, positive environmental impact and now, with ease in its procurement, sugarcane trash is the renewablefuel of today and future for the Indian sugar mills.
The impact of human activities on the environment is rapidly changing. One such activity gaining much attention is waste disposal. A lot of waste products go to landfills despite constituting a reasonable fraction of organic matter, such as paper materials, food wastes, and pet droppings.
The new preferred way to dispose of organic waste is composting. Composting refers to the process through which materials biodegrade. It is a means by which organic waste can be safely recycled. Composting can be effectively done with compost systems.
Take note that this process of waste disposal is still in its early stages, especially when adopted in homes. Still, here are 7 benefits of composting:
1. Improved Soil Quality
Composted materials become humus, a known nutrient-rich constituent of soil. The newly formed humus replenishes soil nutrients and improves water retention in loose soil. Thus, soil quality considerably improves as a result of composting.
Composted materials are also rich in fungi and bacteria. These microbes prevent insect infestation and suppress weed growth. With these nutrient draining agents out of the way, your soil quality dramatically improves, too.
2. Saves Time and Money
It is a waste of time and money when a yard being cultivated does not experience normal growth, nor does it yield the expected harvest. Fortunately, you can save money and time in the long term with composting practices. This is possible because of the compost’s ability to fight insect infestation, weed growth, and to replenish the soil of lost nutrients.
The three nutrients that are sought in chemical fertilizers, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium (NPK), are made available by humus. This directly saves you the cost of purchasing fertilizers. Without the presence of compost, farmers need to spend a lot of money to buy pesticides and weed killers.
3. Environment Friendliness
Composting is an environmentally friendly option compared to landfills. Landfills are currently the most common destination for organic waste. In landfills, organic waste cannot decay properly, so they generate a specific greenhouse gas called methane.
Methane is known to cause harmful effects on the environment – similar to that of carbon dioxide but even more dangerous. The more organic waste ends up in landfills, the more methane gas that is produced.
Composting solves this problem in a whiff by reducing the amount of methane produced while organic matter decays. Composting allows carbon to be retained in the soil, which lowers the carbon footprint caused by decaying matter.
The ability of compost to bypass the incineration of yard waste also makes it a preferred option for organic waste in yards.
4. Improved Human Health
There are several ways for composting to indirectly enhance human health. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as mentioned above, by composting is not only good for the environment but also for people – a reduction of greenhouse gas means a healthier environment to live in.
Organic food production credited to composting also improves human health in significant ways. It reduces the number of chemicals from fertilizers and pesticides that end up in meals, translating to healthier humans.
5. Higher Agricultural Yield
A higher yield of crops is very important to farmers. Through its ability to increase soil quality, composting achieves a higher return in agricultural products. More plant yield accounts for more plants to be sold, which also means more money to be made.
Soil quality also translates to the quality of the food which is produced. Food produced from high-quality, organic soil is free from all toxins from chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
6. Reduced Erosion
Erosion is harmful to the soil because it makes soil matter and nutrients to be washed away. This is compounded by the fact that soils are loose.
Compost averts erosion by remedying the existing structure of the soil. It further prevents erosion by:
Aiding water infiltration in the soil structure.
Aiding water retention, thereby slowing runoff and loss of soil matter.
Allows for quicker vegetation growth.
7. Aids Biodiversity
Microorganisms present in the soil, such as bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, will cause the decay of organic material. Their presence is important because they aid soil aeration. Soil aeration on its own accelerates the composting process, making nutrients available in their usable state as quickly as possible.
Other organisms that are present in composted soil include worms and beneficial insects. All these aids the process of plant growth.
Conclusion
Composting is a sustainable and environmentally friendly way to dispose of organic waste. It is particularly important even now as the world struggles with creating solutions to waste disposal.
The application of compost results in better soil quality. It is also a process that saves them time and money of farmers. Humans can benefit from composting through improved health. There is a higher yield of farm produce as a result of composting. Erosion is significantly reduced, and biodiversity is achieved in the soil through composting.
The physical handling of biomass fuels during collection or at a processing plant can be challenging task, particularly for solid biomass. Biomass fuels tend to vary with density, moisture content and particle size and can also be corrosive. Therefore biomass fuel handling equipment is often a difficult part of a plant to adequately design, maintain and operate.
The design and equipment choice for the fuel handling system, including preparation and refinement systems is carried out in accordance with the plant configuration. This is of special importance when the biomass is not homogeneous and contains impurities, typically for forest and agricultural wastes. Some of the common problems encountered have been the unpopular design and undersized fuel handling, preparation and feeding systems.
The fuel handling core systems and equipment are dependent on both the raw fuel type and condition as well as on the conversion/combustion technology employed. The core equipment in a biomass power plant include the following:
Fuel reception
Fuel weighing systems
Receiving bunkers
Bunker discharge systems (stoker, screw, grab bucket)
Fuel preparation
Fuel drying systems
Crushers
Chippers
Screening systems
Shredding systems
Grinding systems (for pulverised fuel burners)
Safety systems (explosion relieve, emergency discharge, fire detections etc)
To enable any available biomass resource to be matched with the end use energy carrier required (heat, electricity or transport fuels) the correct selection of conversion technologies is required. Since the forms in which biomass can be used for energy are diverse, optimal resources, technologies and entire systems will be shaped by local conditions, both physical and socio-economic in nature.
As the majority of people in developing countries will continue using biomass as their primary energy source well into the next century, it is of critical importance that biomass-based energy truly can be modernized to yield multiple socioeconomic and environmental benefits.
Biomass pellets are a popular type of biomass fuel, generally made from wood wastes, agricultural biomass, commercial grasses and forestry residues. In addition to savings in transportation and storage, pelletization of biomass facilitates easy and cost effective handling. Dense cubes pellets have the flowability characteristics similar to those of cereal grains. The regular geometry and small size of biomass pellets allow automatic feeding with very fine calibration. High density of pellets also permits compact storage and rational transport over long distance. Pellets are extremely dense and can be produced with a low moisture content that allows them to be burned with very high combustion efficiency.
Biomass pelletization is a standard method for the production of high density, solid energy carriers from biomass. Pellets are manufactured in several types and grades as fuels for electric power plants, homes, and other applications. Pellet-making equipment is available at a variety of sizes and scales, which allows manufacture at domestic as well industrial-scale production. Pellets have a cylindrical shape and are about 6-25 mm in diameter and 3-50 mm in length. There are European standards for biomass pellets and raw material classification (EN 14961-1, EN 14961-2 and EN 14961-6) and international ISO standards under development (ISO/DIS 17225-1, ISO/DIS 17225-2 and ISO/DIS 17225-6).
Process Description
The biomass pelletization process consists of multiple steps including raw material pre-treatment, pelletization and post-treatment. The first step in the pelletization process is the preparation of feedstock which includes selecting a feedstock suitable for this process, its filtration, storage and protection. Raw materials used are sawdust, wood shavings, wood wastes, agricultural residues like straw, switchgrass etc. Filtration is done to remove unwanted materials like stone, metal, etc. The feedstock should be stored in such a manner that it is away from impurities and moisture. In cases where there are different types of feedstock, a blending process is used to achieve consistency.
The moisture content in biomass can be considerably high and are usually up to 50% – 60% which should be reduced to 10 to 15%. Rotary drum dryer is the most common equipment used for this purpose. Superheated steam dryers, flash dryers, spouted bed dryers and belt dryers can also be used. Drying increases the efficiency of biomass and it produces almost no smoke on combustion. It should be noted that the feedstock should not be over dried, as a small amount of moisture helps in binding the biomass particles. The drying process is the most energy intensive process and accounts for about 70% of the total energy used in the pelletization process.
Schematic of Pelletization of Woody Biomass
Beforefeeding biomass to pellet mills, the biomass should be reduced to small particles of the order of not more than 3mm. If the pellet size is too large or too small, it affects the quality of pellet and in turn increases the energy consumption. Therefore the particles should have proper size and should be consistent. Size reduction is done by grinding using a hammer mill equipped with a screen of size 3.2 to 6.4 mm. If the feedstock is quite large, it goes through a chipper before grinding.
The next and the most important step is pelletization where biomass is compressed against a heated metal plate (known as die) using a roller. The die consists of holes of fixed diameter through which the biomass passes under high pressure. Due to the high pressure, frictional forces increase, leading to a considerable rise in temperature. High temperature causes the lignin and resins present in biomass to soften which acts as a binding agent between the biomass fibers. This way the biomass particles fuse to form pellets.
The rate of production and electrical energy used in the pelletization of biomass are strongly correlated to the raw material type and processing conditions such as moisture content and feed size. The The average energy required to pelletize biomass is roughly between 16 kWh/t and 49kWh/t. During pelletization, a large fraction of the process energy is used to make the biomass flow into the inlets of the press channels.
Binders or lubricants may be added in some cases to produce higher quality pellets. Binders increase the pellet density and durability. Wood contains natural resins which act as a binder. Similarly, sawdust contains lignin which holds the pellet together. However, agricultural residues do not contain much resins or lignin, and so a stabilizing agent needs to be added in this case. Distillers dry grains or potato starch is some commonly used binders. The use of natural additives depends on biomass composition and the mass proportion between cellulose, hemicelluloses, lignin and inorganics.
Due to the friction generated in the die, excess heat is developed. Thus, the pellets are very soft and hot (about 70 to 90oC). It needs to be cooled and dried before its storage or packaging. The pellets may then be passed through a vibrating screen to remove fine materials. This ensures that the fuel source is clean and dust free.
The pellets are packed into bags using an overhead hopper and a conveyor belt. Pellets are stored in elevated storage bins or ground level silos. The packaging should be such that the pellets are protected from moisture and pollutants. Commercial pellet mills and other pelletizing equipment are widely available across the globe.
“The discovery of agriculture was the first big step toward a civilized life.” – Arthur Keith.
Biofuels have revolutionized the way people look at land development and agriculture. With its ability to power heavy machinery, there’s no limit on what agricultural land can be cleared for new uses or profit. Not only that but biofuels are a renewable source of energy, meaning that they don’t rely on non-renewable sources like gasoline. They offer sustainability as well as an environmentally safe alternative fuel, making them just perfect for most farming operations.
Powering Agriculture: Exploring Biofuels for Agricultural Machinery
A study done by Muhammad Saleem of the Jubail University College, Saudi Arabia, highlights that in Sweden, Denmark, and Poland, renewable energy is supplanting over 50% of the energy demand, greatly increasing interest in utilizing biofuels such as biodiesel in manufacturing and other uses.
Biodiesel is made from agricultural products such as soybean oil or canola oil and provides great efficiency when used in various diesel engines without any engine alteration needed– so you don’t need to break the bank by upgrading your equipment. Plus, it produces fewer emissions than regular diesel fuel while still supplying just enough to pull a tractor and clear the land.
Not too keen on using byproducts? Then ethanol might be more up your alley – this is simply made from crops like corn, wheat and sugarcane and is often added to gasoline giving even more power right off the bat. There are also lignocellulosic residues like food waste and crop leftovers, which are converted into biofuels to give back to the environment in more ways than one. This means you can get a sustainable source of energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Why Professional Tree Removal Services are Essential for Land Clearing in Agriculture?
Efficiently removing trees can open up fields for planting new crops, restore natural drainage patterns that keep soil moist and provide better visibility of artificial structures like fences and irrigation systems. Plus, trees divert resources (like water hydration) away from production into their own energy reserves- something that no landowner wants.
But it’s not all about effective production; safety should always be a top priority as well. That’s why calling experienced tree removal specialists makes good sense; they will help ensure your project meets local regulations so they won’t come back to bite you later down the road – especially important when dealing with protected species, as highlighted by cityofmillcreek.com.
Professional organizations have access to update equipment including cranes and chippers used specifically to safely remove even really big trees on tough terrains rapidly and efficiently. This saves time meaning an expedited timeline between start and finish. Turning your land into an energy-producing powerhouse begins with proper tree services that will quickly, safely and legally clear away any old growth in the path of sustainability. So don’t just dive right in; get it done right the first time and partner up with an expert for a more productive and profitable agricultural outcome.
Ultimately, biofuels have been changing up the agricultural game by offering efficient and renewable sources of energy perfect for land clearing machinery without skimping on engine performance. With no engine modifications required it’s easy to make use of these options meaning that literally anyone wishing to develop new plots or grow their business or rather farms can profit from its usability.
Biomass logistics involves all the unit operations necessary to move biomass wastes from the land to the biomass energy plant. The biomass can be transported directly from farm or from stacks next to the farm to the processing plant. Biomass may be minimally processed before being shipped to the plant, as in case of biomass supply from the stacks. Generally the biomass is trucked directly from farm to the biomass processing facility if no processing is involved.
Another option is to transfer the biomass to a central location where the material is accumulated and subsequently dispatched to the energy conversion facility. While in depot, the biomass could be pre-processed minimally (ground) or extensively (pelletized). The depot also provides an opportunity to interface with rail transport if that is an available option. The choice of any of the options depends on the economics and cultural practices. For example in irrigated areas, there is always space on the farm (corner of the land) where quantities of biomass can be stacked.
The key components to reduce costs in harvesting, collecting and transportation of biomass can be summarized as:
Reduce the number of passes through the field by amalgamating collection operations.
Increase the bulk density of biomass
Work with minimal moisture content.
Granulation/pelletization is the best option, though the existing technology is expensive.
Trucking seems to be the most common mode of biomass transportation option but rail and pipeline may become attractive once the capital costs for these transport modes are reduced.
The logistics of transporting, handling and storing the bulky and variable biomass material for delivery to the biopower plant is a key part of the biomass supply chain that is often overlooked by project developers. Whether the biomass comes from forest residues on hill country, straw residues from cereal crops grown on arable land, or the non-edible components of small scale, subsistence farming systems, the relative cost of collection will be considerable.
Careful development of a system to minimize machinery use, human effort and energy inputs can have a considerable impact on the cost of the biomass as delivered to the biomass processing plant gate.
The logistics of supplying a biomass power plant with consistent and regular volumes of biomass are complex.
Most of the agricultural biomass resources tend to have a relatively low energy density compared with fossil fuels. This often makes handling, storage and transportation more costly per unit of energy carried. Some crop residues are often not competitive because the biomass resource is dispersed over large areas leading to high collection and transport costs.
The costs for long distance haulage of bulky biomass will be minimized if the biomass can be sourced from a location where it is already concentrated, such as sugar mill. It can then be converted in the nearby biomass energy plant to more transportable forms of energy carrier if not to be utilized on-site.
The logistics of supplying a biopower plant with sufficient volumes of biomass from a number of sources at suitable quality specifications and possibly all year round, are complex. Agricultural residues can be stored on the farm until needed. Then they can be collected and delivered directly to the conversion plant on demand. At times this requires considerable logistics to ensure only a few days of supply are available on-site but that the risk of non-supply at any time is low.
Losses of dry matter, and hence of energy content, commonly occur during the harvest transport and storage process. This can either be from physical losses of the biomass material in the field during the harvest operation or dropping off a truck, or by the reduction of dry matter of biomass material which occurs in storage over time as a result of respiration processes and as the product deteriorates. Dry matter loss is normally reduced over time if the moisture content of the biomass can be lowered or oxygen can be excluded in order to constrain pathological action.
To ensure sufficient and consistent biomass supplies, all agents involved with the production, collection, storage, and transportation of biomass require compensation for their share of costs incurred. In addition, a viable biomass production and distribution system must include producer incentives, encouraging them to sell their post-harvest plant residue.
Biochar is a carbon-rich, fine-grained residue which can be produced either by ancient techniques (such as covering burning biomass with soil and allowing it to smoulder) or state-of-the-art modern biomass pyrolysis processes. Combustion and decomposition of woody biomass and agricultural residues results in the emission of a large amount of carbon dioxide. Biochar can store this CO2 in the soil leading to reduction in GHGs emission and enhancement of soil fertility.
Biochar holds the promise to tackle chronic human development issues like hunger and food insecurity, low agricultural productivity and soil depletion, deforestation and biodiversity loss, energy poverty, water pollution, air pollution and climate change. Let us have a close look at some of the most promising applications of biochar.
1. Use of biochar in animal farming
At present approx. 90% of the biochar used in Europe goes into animal farming. Different to its application to fields, a farmer will notice its effects within a few days. Whether used in feeding, litter or in slurry treatment, a farmer will quickly notice less smell. Used as a feed supplement, the incidence of diarrhoea rapidly decreases, feed intake is improved, allergies disappear, and the animals become calmer.
In Germany, researchers conducted a controlled experiment in a dairy that was experiencing a number of common health problems: reduced performance, movement disorder, fertility disorders, inflammation of the urinary bladder, viscous salivas, and diarrhoea. Animals were fed different combinations of charcoal, sauerkraut juice or humic acids over periods of 4 to 6 weeks.
Experimenters found that oral application of charcoal (from 200 to 400 g/day), sauerkraut juice and humic acids influenced the antibody levels to C. botulinum, indicating reduced gastrointestinal neurotoxin burden. They found that when the feed supplements were ended, antibody levels increased, indicating that regular feeding of charcoal and other supplements had a tonic effect on cow health.
2. Biochar as soil conditioner
In certain poor soils (mainly in the tropics), positive effects on soil fertility were seen when applying untreated biochar. These include the higher capacity of the soil to store water, aeration of the soil and the release of nutrients through raising the soil’s pH value. In temperate climates, soils tend to have humus content of over 1.5%, meaning that such effects only play a secondary role.
Indeed, fresh biochar may adsorb nutrients in the soil, causing at least in the short and medium term – a negative effect on plant growth. These are the reasons why in temperate climates biochar should only be used when first loaded with nutrients and when the char surfaces have been activated through microbial oxidation.
The best method of loading nutrients is to co-compost the char. This involves adding 10–30% biochar (by volume) to the biomass to be composted. Co-composting improves both the biochar and the compost. The resulting compost can be used as a highly efficient substitute for peat in potting soil, greenhouses, nurseries and other special cultures.
Because biochar serves as a carrier for plant nutrients, it can produce organic carbon-based fertilizers by mixing biochar with such organic waste as wool, molasses, ash, slurry and pomace. These are at least as efficient as conventional fertilizers, and have the advantage of not having the well-known adverse effects on the ecosystem. Such fertilizers prevent the leaching of nutrients, a negative aspect of conventional fertilizers. The nutrients are available as and when the plants need them. Through the stimulation of microbial symbiosis, the plant takes up the nutrients stored in the porous carbon structure and on its surfaces.
A range of organic chemicals are produced during pyrolysis. Some of these remain stuck to the pores and surfaces of the biochar and may have a role in stimulating a plant’s internal immune system, thereby increasing its resistance to pathogens. The effect on plant defence mechanisms was mainly observed when using low temperature biochars (pyrolysed at 350° to 450°C). This potential use is, however, only just now being developed and still requires a lot of research effort.
3. Biochar as construction material
The two interesting properties of biochar are its extremely low thermal conductivity and its ability to absorb water up to 6 times its weight. These properties mean that biochar is just the right material for insulating buildings and regulating humidity. In combination with clay, but also with lime and cement mortar, biochar can be added to clay at a ratio of up to 50% and replace sand in lime and cement mortars. This creates indoor plasters with excellent insulation and breathing properties, able to maintain humidity levels in a room at 45–70% in both summer and winter. This in turn prevents not just dry air, which can lead to respiratory disorders and allergies, but also dampness and air condensing on the walls, which can lead to mould developing.
As per study by the Ithaka Institute’s biochar-plaster wine cellar and seminar rooms in the Ithaka Journal. Such biochar-mud plaster adsorbs smells and toxins, a property not just benefiting smokers. Biochar-mud plasters can improve working conditions in libraries, schools, warehouses, factories and agricultural buildings.
Biochar is an efficient adsorber of electromagnetic radiation, meaning that biochar-mud plaster can prevent “electrosmog”. Biochar can also be applied to the outside walls of a building by jet-spray technique mixing it with lime. Applied at thicknesses of up to 20 cm, it is a substitute for Styrofoam insulation. Houses insulated this way become carbon sinks, while at the same time having a more healthy indoor climate. Should such a house be demolished at a later date, the biochar-mud or biochar-lime plaster can be recycled as a valuable compost additive.
4. Biochar as decontaminant
As a soil additive for soil remediation – for use in particular on former mine-works, military bases and landfill sites.
Soil substrates – Highly adsorbing and effective for plantation soil substrates for use in cleaning wastewater; in particular urban wastewater contaminated by heavy metals.
A barrier preventing pesticides getting into surface water – berms around fields and ponds can be equipped with 30-50 cm deep barriers made of biochar for filtering out pesticides.
Treating pond and lake water – biochar is good for adsorbing pesticides and fertilizers, as well as for improving water aeration.
5. Use of biochar in wastewater treatment – Our Project
The biochar grounded to a particle size of less than 1.5 mm and surface area of 600 – 1000 m2/g. The figure below is the basic representation of production of biochar for wastewater treatment.
We conducted a study for municipal wastewater which was obtained from a local municipal treatment plant. The municipal wastewater was tested for its physicochemical parameters including pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total phosphates (TP) and total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) using the APHA (2005) standard methods.
Bio filtration of the municipal wastewater with biochar acting as the bio adsorbent was allowed to take place over a 5 day period noting the changes in the wastewater parameters. The municipal wastewater and the treated effluent physicochemical.
The COD concentration in the municipal wastewater decreased by 90% upon treatment with bio-char. The decrease in the COD was attributed to the enhanced removal of bio contaminants as they were passed through the biochar due to the biochar’s adsorption properties as well as the high surface area of the bio char. An 89% reduction in the TSS was observed as the bio filtration process with bio char increased from one day to five days
The TKN concentration in the wastewater decreased by 64% upon treatment with bio char as a bio filter. The TP in the wastewater decreased by 78% as the bio filtration time with biochar increase. The wastewater pH changed from being alkaline to neutral during the treatment with biochar over the 5 day period
6. Use of Biochar in Textiles
In Japan and China bamboo-based biochar are already being woven into textiles to gain better thermal and breathing properties and to reduce the development of odours through sweat. The same aim is pursued through the inclusion of biochar in shoe soles and socks.
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