We Could Power and Heat all of Western Canada's homes on Straw.

[Zephyr]

The petty arguments about solar panels and wind vs. gas.


We have the technology through syngas, and the resource, through straw, to heat all of western Canada carbon-neutral.


At under 5 cents a Kwh.


The will just isn't there.

And the skill, perhaps.


Food for thought.


PS: IF this turns into another renewables bashing or climate change argument thread, I'm deleting the whole thing.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

;The naysayers will point out that by removing the straw, we are not sequestering the CO2. And as a result, building OM in our soils.

But studies seem to indicate that after enough years of continuous no-till, OM levels increases level off, and sequestration also slows or stops, as the soils become saturated to their holding capacity. So perhaps this idea isn't as unsustainable as it sounds at first glance.

[makar]

Never could work, straw board and pellet plant both went broke here, with 30 to 40 dollars in nutrients in a bale makes no sense.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Never could work, straw board and pellet plant both went broke here, with 30 to 40 dollars in nutrients in a bale makes no sense.

But, can they be recovered in the burning process? The nutrients certainly aren't destroyed.

Or more importantly, can the straw be baled, hauled, processed, the nutrients salvaged, and then hauled back to the land and spread for less energy than what would be recovered by burning it?

[RD414]

Are you talking huge units, community, or on farm? I have seen tonnes of flax straw baled, ready to be burnt in our area. Definitely enough waste to do some power generation.

[woodland]

How many kWh can a tonne of straw produce? The organic matter of straw is highly valued to me and especially the cows when the windchill is -42 like it has been for a couple days already. What is the byproduct of this process?

Side note
The price of wood chips used to be $700 a load here and now is around $2,000 after a pellet plant opened up in the area and ships them overseas. One of the unforeseen aspects to an outsider.

Interesting idea

[Zephyr]

We are part of this study in Manitoba, I just posted some excerpts...


This is on flax straw. Assuming 0.62 metric tonne per acre yield.






Large scale plants. Well, medium scale so that they don't require trucking straw 100 miles.

It is very common in Europe.

And yes, wood chips, sawdust... all that can be turned into energy.

Modern straw burners aren't just a big uncontrolled fire. They are computer controlled, primary pyrolysis creates the syngas, which is then burn under extreme temperatures creating lots of efficient heat/power.


The byproduct is biochar, which is a soil amendment for light/sandy/wethered soil...

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Looks like biochar can preserve less than half of the nutrients.



And according to this abstract, increasing pyrolisis temperature increased the yield of P and K, at the expense of N.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261177942_YIELD_AND_NUTRIENT_COMPOSITION_OF_BIOCHA R_PRODUCED_FROM_DIFFERENT_FEEDSTOCKS_AT_VARYING_PY ROLYTIC_TEMPERATURES https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261177942_YIELD_AND_NUTRIENT_COMPOSITION_OF_BIOCHA R_PRODUCED_FROM_DIFFERENT_FEEDSTOCKS_AT_VARYING_PY ROLYTIC_TEMPERATURES

[blackpowder]

Sorry, but could we then not make syngas from coal?

[Zephyr]

Looks like biochar can preserve less than half of the nutrients.

[ATTACH]5486[/ATTACH]

And according to this abstract, increasing pyrolisis temperature increased the yield of P and K, at the expense of N.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261177942_YIELD_AND_NUTRIENT_COMPOSITION_OF_BIOCHA R_PRODUCED_FROM_DIFFERENT_FEEDSTOCKS_AT_VARYING_PY ROLYTIC_TEMPERATURES https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261177942_YIELD_AND_NUTRIENT_COMPOSITION_OF_BIOCHA R_PRODUCED_FROM_DIFFERENT_FEEDSTOCKS_AT_VARYING_PY ROLYTIC_TEMPERATURES

At a cost of $0.0453/kwh, you could pay the producer $80/acre for the straw to recover nutrients...

One of the companies we deal with builds biogas reactors. They convert wood (we want one that works on straw) to syngas, produce heat as a byproduct, and the biogas runs an internal combustion engine similar to one run on Nat. gas.


These reactors can easily be used to produce fuel for grain dryers also.

Negating the carbon tax, and reliance on fossil fuels...

In our area there's still stubble burning to get rid of trash so you can seed... That's all wasted energy.

[Zephyr]

Sorry, but could we then not make syngas from coal?

Yes, but you're back to using fossil fuels, and it's very dirty and bad for the environment... Plus you're introducing new CO2 not reusing it, and it's not a renewable fuel source.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

At a cost of $0.0453/kwh, you could pay the producer $80/acre for the straw to recover nutrients...

One of the companies we deal with builds biogas reactors. They convert wood (we want one that works on straw) to syngas, produce heat as a byproduct, and the biogas runs an internal combustion engine similar to one run on Nat. gas.


These reactors can easily be used to produce fuel for grain dryers also.

Negating the carbon tax, and reliance on fossil fuels...

In our area there's still stubble burning to get rid of trash so you can seed... That's all wasted energy.

Yes, but the nutrients we buy with the $80 per acre are not sustainable or renewable. They either come from a hole in the ground, or come from natural gas. And are not as stable in the soil. Not arguing the economics, but selling it as a sustainable alternative is going to be tough.

[Zephyr]

Yes, but the nutrients we buy with the $80 per acre are not sustainable or renewable. They either come from a hole in the ground, or come from natural gas. And are not as stable in the soil. Not arguing the economics, but selling it as a sustainable alternative is going to be tough.

Nitrogen is fully renwwable.

If we look at nutrient recovery from cities we would be a lot closer also on P.

The point is 99% of flax straw gets burnt. Lots of cereal straw gets burnt.

We get nothing out of that its a completely wasted resource.


Also theres a few studies now showing that straw removal isnt taking very much for nutrients or OM, at least not compared to what we thought...

Roots chaff and stubble is all there still.

[WiltonRanch]

Syngas is not a new idea. Seen articles about trucks and tractors running on wood years ago. FWIW the equipment needed to do this isn’t super complex but to do a super efficient job probably is. A stationary unit running an engine producing electricity would be interesting to say the least.

[MBgrower]

You might as well burn it if your not going to get a credit to sequester it.