Bradshaw and Biomass Richard Douthwaite Feasta, Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability Teagasc2030.

Bradshaw and Biomass

Richard DouthwaiteFeasta, Foundation for the Economics of

Sustainability

Teagasc2030

Latest estimates for global fossil fuel production

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Number of seconds of work required to earn the money to buy a unit of electricity

The price of oil in euros

Biomass: Too valuable a resource just to burn

First, cut your miscanthus....

Hemp: a productive annual, but only 8-10 tonnes/hectare

The myriad uses to which hemp can be put

0

2 0Ma in title

Co lu mn 1

Co lu mn 2

Co lu mn 3

Ways of making the journey

Crush or grind Ferment using yeast Break down using enzymes Digest using bacteria Hydrolyse Pyrolyse Catalyse Distil Reconstruct using algae

Utilising rape seed

Local activities enable better use of heat

One possible journey

1. Grind up the grass 2. Extract the protein 3. Put residue in digester to get methane

along with sewage sludge and animal slurries, food waste etc

4. Treat the cellulose left, along with waste paper and wood waste, to turn it

into platform chemicals using the Biofine process

5. Grow algae on the remaining liquor 6. Recover nutrients using char 7. Return nutrients to the land

More local processing to increase farm incomes and allow more nutrients to be returned

A variant on the process using pyrolysis rather than hydrolysis

How a terra preta soil compares with a normal one

How adding charcoal to the soil encourages fungal

growth

Big increase in soil bacteria when charcoal added

Eprida char and no char

With and without char

The drivers forcing changes in land use

* The prices of agricultural products will reflect their energy content.

* People will have to work much longer to earn enough to pay for their food.

* The higher prices relative to labour will allow more people to work the land or in agri-industries

* Crops will be grown to maximise energy gain. Energy Return on Energy Invested. (EROEI)

Land use patterns we can expect by 2030 – 1

* Perennials will have scored over annuals. Low-till and no-till will have displaced most traditional tillage.

* A lot of pasture land will have been converted to energy-plus crops because of the energy cost of producing meat. Plant protein will be eaten directly or via better converters like chickens

Why we are getting climate change

Land use patterns we can expect by 2030 – 2

* Farmers will receive tradable carbon permits for any increases in the amount of carbon they have sequestered in their land.

* Equally, if they fail to maintain the carbon content, they will have to buy emissions permits at the current rate.

Seminar this week

Danny Day, the developer of the Eprida process, will be

giving a seminar on it at the Teagasc Ashton Food Research Centre, this Friday, at 2pm.