>From: Peter Harris <peter_harris@clear.net.nz>
>Reply-To: peter_harris@clear.net.nz
>To: interact@Keelynet.com
>Subject: Short rotation cropping
>Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 21:51:15
>
>Greeting all from a fast cooling New Zealand.
>The list seems quiet so I thought I'd share something I've been
>thinking about on and off for many years.
>
>First two schemes that have lodged in my brain over the years.
> > There is (was?) a power plant in the UK which runs on willow wood.
>The wood is fast growing. The trees are cultivated in rows and in
>such a way that they produce virtical wands 2 to 3 meters tall, this
>all leads to easy automated harvesting.
>
> > If a farm were to turn 10% of it's area over to producing
>sunflowers, the oil yielded from the seeds could be used to run
>deasel machinery without modification and would be sufficient in
>volume to run all the farms machines. This is from memory and at
>least 15 years old so please don't try it on my word alone.
>
>Both of these schemes are the harvesting of bio-mass and it strikes
>me that this is exactly what I and probably many of you do most
>weekend for half the year while mowing the lawn. The question is, is
>there an easy way to use grass clipping as a fuel source?
>Direct burning of grass is very unpleasant unless considerable effort
>is spent in drying it. A better solution would be to utilise a micro-
>organism to digest the cellulose and produce either a flamable gas
>which could be collected and used immediately or a liquid like
>ethanol which would require distillation to extract it and could be
>stored for use later.
>
>BFN
> Pete
>
>
>
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