industry which will allow more hayland and grassland to be enrolled since the contracts will be awarded in time for fall field preparation. By the third year, the goal is to reach the full 8,000 acres of switchgrass. “The reason we aren’t planting 8,000 acres the first year is because there is a lack of seed,” English adds. He says the contracts are rather complex, and include a fuel-charge index which will adjust the contract price up or down depending on the price of tractor fuel in October of each year. The first switchgrass harvest this fall is expected to yield 2 dry tons per acre, which is about one-third of its full potential of 7 dry tons per acre. Harvesting and storage methods are being studied this winter, comparing square and round bales that are both tarped and left uncovered, as well as being set on the ground, on gravel and on pallets. Another system being investigated is the encasement of bales in plastic tubes that can hold up to 30 bales and protect them from weathering, English says. Next year, researchers want to experiment with the cotton module harvest system, which transformed the cotton harvest in the 1970s. Special wagons are used to transfer cotton from the picker working its way through the field to a module builder parked on the field’s edge. The load of cotton is dumped over the top of the module builder which has a hydraulic tamper traveling along the top edge to compress the fluffy cotton bolls into a solid bale that measures about 8-feet-wide, 8-feet-tall and 30-feetlong. When it’s full, the back door of the module builder is opened, the side walls lift up on wheels, and a tractor pulls the machine away
from the bale. The bale is left sitting on the ground and is covered with a tarp if it’s going to be left in the field for any length of time. When the gin needs more supplies, a module truck backs up to the huge bale. The truck bed tilts to slide under the leading edge of the cotton bale and the live bottom on the truck bed helps to draw the bale onto the truck as it backs up. Loading the approximately 30,000-pound-bale of cotton takes just a few minutes and the truck can travel at highway speeds to the cotton gin. Such a system, if it can be modified to successfully compact switchgrass, promises to greatly reduce the handling costs associated with square or round bales. English sees a number of issues that have yet to be worked out—how large a contingency supply will be needed above a oneyear supply for the biorefinery, whether to store on farm or in a centralized location, and if bales are stored in a central location who takes ownership of the biomass. He believes because of the size of the farms and the availability of equipment in this area of Tennessee, farmers will be harvesting and stacking their own switchgrass bales, although they may not be loading the trucks.
Iowa: Biomass for Cofiring The Iowa switchgrass project is further along than most with more than a decade of research. “There’s a big difference between feasibility studies and commercialization, and there’s a difference between taking a crop residue and developing a dedicated energy
Pelleting Plants for the Recycling Industry Domestic Waste: Pellets or Fluff
Wood: Pellets
Biomass: Pellets
Waste Tyres: Granulate
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