Miscanthus cannot be grown from seed; new fields must be made from existing fields by separating the plant into rhizomes then transplanting them to a new field. This is the main issue with Miscanthus as the need to plant rhizomes raises problems. Firstly you can only source the rhizomes from certain places therefore the cost to acquire them can be quite high. Also because each rhizome has to be transplanted the setup costs can also be high. Finally the main issue is once the crop is in place due to the high initial setup costs, crop rotation cannot take place. Therefore the landowner is essentially tied into Miscanthus for a long period of time.

If you compared Miscanthus to Industrial Hemp there are many more advantages to Hemp. Because Industrial Hemp is grown by seed and only grows for 3 months of the year the setup and maintenance costs are much lower. Industrial Hemp can be used from more things, including food, fuel, rope, clothes, plastics and more. Finally Industrial Hemp, as it is grown by seed, can be part of a crop rotation system. Giving the landowner the ability to change to the crop, which is needed at that time.

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Miscanthus as a crop can be grown in quite a large range of areas, including Europe, Asia and North America. The plant is more suited to temperate climates, where in warmer drier climates it is more suitable to grow sugar cane instead of miscanthus. So really Miscanthus is more suited to cooler and wetter climates.

Miscanthus can grow in marginal soils, however obviously the more productive the soil the more productive the crop. So the balance has to be made between the fertilizer input costs for the productivity gains.

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Miscanthus can be harvested with standard equipment, but when is the best time to harvest Miscanthus? Well basically once the plant has turned brown and the leaves have fallen of the crop, and back to the soil. The reasons for this are:

Nitrogen
Nitrogen is an unwanted element in a fuel source as it causes complications during the combustion process. The plant also needs Nitrogen to grow, so by letting the leaves die off and return to the soil reduces the fertilizer input the crop requires.

Moisture
As the Miscanthus goes from green to brown it also dries out. Obviously as a fuel it needs to be dry, so harvesting a dry fuel reduces the energy inputs required compared with other resources to turn it into a viable efficient fuel source. Also with regards to pellet production the material needs to be dry, for example between 10-20%. Miscanthus at harvest time is between 10-20%, so is ready to be upgraded into pellets.

Corrosion
The video does not mention the corrosion aspects of the fuel, but it definitely should be considered. Miscanthus is more corrosive than say burning wood, and depending on when you harvest the crop depends on how corrosive it is. Harvesting a crop after winter leaching or washing removes some of the corrosive elements.

Harvest Window
The window between the crop dying down and next springs growth is between November and April. Again to reduce the corrosion elements the crop should be harvested as late as possible. However the longer the crop is left the lower the tonne per acre because of crop loses.

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The video below gives an explanation of how Nitrogen is deposited back to the soil every fall as the leaves fall from Miscanthus back to the soil. Unlike food crops, which extract Nitrogen from the soil, as energy crops deposit Nitrogen, this reduces their fertilizer demands.

As stated this does not completely resolve the need for fertilizers, however it does reduce the amount needed. Remember, once biomass has been burnt the ash can be used as a soil amendment to get Nitrogen back into the soil. Bio char produced from gasification, is a particularly good soil adamant.

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Hemp is currently the most under utilized biomass crop we currently have. Hemp can be used to produce textiles, plastics, food and fuel among many other uses. Please view the video below for a brief summary on the history of Hemp.

Hemp has been stigmatized because of the association to marijuana, however they are not the same plant. Comparing Hemp to marijuana is like saying poppies are heroin and all mushrooms are magic.

From a biomass pellet perspective, Hemp should be a priority fuel. Firstly hemp produces some of the highest yields of any crop, can grow in almost any climate and can be grown from simply planting a seed. The biomass pellet side of Hemp would be left over dust, basically what is left after all the seeds, fibre and oil have been extracted.

Hemp dust pellets are a quality fuel. Firstly for pellet production the material is already dry, so drying for pellet production is not required. Secondly the material contains high percentages of lignin, therefore forms strong, compact pellets. Also these pellets are low ash and low corrosion and could be burnt in a pellet stove designed to burn premium wood pellets. We hope to try some Hemp dust in the near future, and test how the material pelletizes and how well it burns.

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Here Ben from Victory Gasworks explains the advantages of biomass as a fuel source. Here is a quick summary of the comments included in the video.

Biomass is a wide range resource, from wood, to purpose grown energy crops and waste streams. So in almost every area of the world there is some form of usable biomass, and in regards to waste biomass it must be disposed of anyway, so why not use it to generate energy.

As biomass is part of the carbon cycle, using and burning biomass is regarded as carbon neutral, as it does not add any extra carbon to the cycle unlike fossil fuels. Also the by products from burning biomass are useful, as they can be used as soil amendments to grow the next crop of biomass.

Biomass is almost always readily available, making it a stable fuel source. Particularly with small-scale pellet production using the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer there is a shorter distance to the end user. This means lower fuel costs and a lower carbon footprint due to less transportation.

Through gasification and other processing, biomass has the potential to produce gaseous and liquid fuels for current transportation vehicles.

Another key point, which is even more relevant in today’s economic climate, is the economic support that biomass fuel could provide. Small-localised biomass energy production from growing to processing could provide jobs and economic benefits on a local and national scale

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In module 4 of Gasification 101, Ben from Victory Gasworks talks about the origins of gasification and the rise, fall and rise again of this technology.

The first large scale use of gasification was for towns gas at the beginning of the 1900’s, which was produced form coal. This gas provided heat and light, however was also used to power vehicles. These vehicles carried the gas in balloons attached to the top of the vehicles.

In the 1920’s the introduction of natural gas pipelines began to replace towns gas, as well as cheap electricity and oil. This began a downward trend in the use of town’s gas and gasification in general. Taxes here in England affected the cost effectiveness of gasification, as road tax was based on weight.

In 1923 the first patent was applied for a down draft gasifier. Between the 1920’s and 30’s there were 12,000 gasification units for stationary power generation operating in Canada and the US.

In the 1930’s Germany was seeking to be energy dependant, and gasification as an automotive fuel began to surge. As with many technologies, the event of war drives technologies further. Again with world war two, the lack of petroleum forced a massive adoption of gasification.

Gasification use peaked during the war, however due to post war cheap oil and gas prices, gasification became a forgotten technology. Between the 1950’s and 1970’s gasification falls further into obscurity, only remaining in developing countries.

As environmental awareness grows during the 1990’s, gasification begins a come back. Today gasification is growing particularly as a means for small-scale operators to produce energy.

As with the PelHeat Mobile Pelletizer, we believe in small-scale production of biomass pellets. The reasons for this are better utilization of resources, fuel independence, price stability and environmental concern. Biomass pellets are currently predominantly used for heat, however small scale gasification offers the possibility to use biomass pellets to generate electricity for personal use, and to sell back to the grid.

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Miscanthus is a warm season perennial grass. Miscanthus is a rapidly growing energy crop, which is currently mainly used by large-scale power stations in co-combustion with coal.

Miscanthus Advantages
Miscanthus has a very high productivity of 10-20 tonnes per acre. It can be grown in a wide range of climates, even in cooler climates like here in the UK.

Miscanthus Disadvantages
Miscanthus is purely an energy crop, and therefore does take up land that could be used for food crop production. Also Miscanthus does not grow from seed, it grows from purpose planted rhizomes. These rhizomes can be expensive to acquire and does increase the initial setup costs of installing the crop, also specialised equipment needs to be used to harvest the crop.

Pellet Production
Through our own experiences with Miscanthus, it is not the easiest material to pelletize, and productivity is closer to high-density materials such as wood as apposed to low-density materials such as straws and other grasses. Also we have experimented burning 100% miscanthus pellets, and we found it was harder to get the fire up to temperature compared to wheat straw pellets for example, however there was far less clinker with Miscanthus pellets.

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