North Sea Bioenergy partnership plants sorghum and sudangrass for biogas
Quicknote bioenergy crops
Sudangrass and sorghum (both belonging to the species Sorghum bicolor) are drought-tolerant tropical crops that yield high quantities of easily fermentable biomass. Now the North Sea Bioenergy partnership, a project to stimulate the use of bioenergy in Belgium, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and the Eastern part of the UK, is experimenting [*Dutch] with both energy crops for the production of biogas. Earlier we reported about German scientists developing sudangrass - sorghum hybrids for biogas too.
Northern Europe is currently experiencing a biogas boom, with many livestock farms turning manure into (pipeline quality) gas. The green gas is then used for electricity generation or as a transport fuel (biogas is the cleanest of more than 70 different automotive fuels and fuel paths - earlier post). But fermenting manure alone is not efficient. Adding dedicated energy crops, such as biogas maize (or its 'super' variant), increases methane yields 10-fold.
Two pilot fields (one in Rumbeke-Beitem, Belgium and another one in Nij Bosma Zathe, Netherlands) are growing eight types of energy maize, sunflowers and Sudangrass (picture) and Sorghum to test their suitability as biogas crops. Especially the latter two have shown very high biomass productivity over very short growth periods. They are co-digested with manure in anaerobic fermenters and yields prove to beat expectations (one hectare of Sudangrass yields around 4000 liters of petro-diesel equivalent biogas). GHG emission measurements are also taken during the entire life-cycle (from crop to final energy production). Results on GHG emissions are expected in the coming months.
Biogas as a transport fuel might be a more feasible path for the production of automotive fuels from biomass than cellulosic ethanol, because the production process is fairly straightforward. Like cellulosic ethanol, the anaerobic fermentation process utilized to produce biogas makes use of the entire biomass stream from a dedicated energy plantation, yielding high amounts of useable energy. In this sense biogas might be qualified as a 'second generation' biofuel, even though the technique has been around for decades.
We track the developments on the utilization of tropical crops for biogas in Europe, because ultimately this experience may offer keys to unlocking the vast potential of similar projects in Africa itself [entry ends here].
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: biogas :: sorghum :: sudangrass ::
Sudangrass and sorghum (both belonging to the species Sorghum bicolor) are drought-tolerant tropical crops that yield high quantities of easily fermentable biomass. Now the North Sea Bioenergy partnership, a project to stimulate the use of bioenergy in Belgium, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and the Eastern part of the UK, is experimenting [*Dutch] with both energy crops for the production of biogas. Earlier we reported about German scientists developing sudangrass - sorghum hybrids for biogas too.
Northern Europe is currently experiencing a biogas boom, with many livestock farms turning manure into (pipeline quality) gas. The green gas is then used for electricity generation or as a transport fuel (biogas is the cleanest of more than 70 different automotive fuels and fuel paths - earlier post). But fermenting manure alone is not efficient. Adding dedicated energy crops, such as biogas maize (or its 'super' variant), increases methane yields 10-fold.
Two pilot fields (one in Rumbeke-Beitem, Belgium and another one in Nij Bosma Zathe, Netherlands) are growing eight types of energy maize, sunflowers and Sudangrass (picture) and Sorghum to test their suitability as biogas crops. Especially the latter two have shown very high biomass productivity over very short growth periods. They are co-digested with manure in anaerobic fermenters and yields prove to beat expectations (one hectare of Sudangrass yields around 4000 liters of petro-diesel equivalent biogas). GHG emission measurements are also taken during the entire life-cycle (from crop to final energy production). Results on GHG emissions are expected in the coming months.
Biogas as a transport fuel might be a more feasible path for the production of automotive fuels from biomass than cellulosic ethanol, because the production process is fairly straightforward. Like cellulosic ethanol, the anaerobic fermentation process utilized to produce biogas makes use of the entire biomass stream from a dedicated energy plantation, yielding high amounts of useable energy. In this sense biogas might be qualified as a 'second generation' biofuel, even though the technique has been around for decades.
We track the developments on the utilization of tropical crops for biogas in Europe, because ultimately this experience may offer keys to unlocking the vast potential of similar projects in Africa itself [entry ends here].
biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: biogas :: sorghum :: sudangrass ::
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