Tag Archives: trees
Comment: Look To The Trees For Truly Green Technology
Cris Brack Green alternatives such as wind and solar may be touted as the solution to our environmental problems such as climate change, but how green are they really? Wind and solar rely on technologically-sophisticated industries and infrastructure including rare earth batteries, highly-processed composite building materials, computer controlled switching and balancing programs and continuous maintenance. There are natural alternatives to such technologies that are arguably “greener”. So, why aren’t we looking to make our technologies truly green? Wind, solar … wood Fire is probably the greatest discovery of humankind, if not the discovery that set us on the path to becoming civilised and social. Wood still fuels the energy needs of millions in Africa, China and India. Perhaps surprisingly, it also fuels the energy needs of many thousands in Europe, Canada, the US and even Australia . Why do we in the developed word seem to have forgotten its power? Wood fuel has numerous advantages over wind or solar. Wood can be grown right where it is needed – even along the boundaries of residential properties, around commercial enterprises or even in urban and peri-urban parks. While it is growing, trees look good and provide a temporary home for birds and other wildlife – certainly not something that can be said for every wind farm. A continuous supply of winter home heating can be produced by selecting relevant tree species (or group of species) and progressively planting them around a “quarter acre” residential block. Each year, one seventh of the boundary could be planted and after seven years the owner could begin harvesting, drying, burning and replanting the oldest trees. A suburban house with over one dozen trees, planted at different times around its boundary, which could grow over half a tonne of firewood every year. Google Earth Changing the trees species and the harvesting rotation lengths could allow co-production of products such as honey or flowers without ultimately endangering fuel reserves. Such a system would however require some management. Neighbourhood groups could coordinate their individual plantings and use of the trees to encourage community projects, including planting in parks, that benefit from trees at different stages of their life or allow longer life spans for selected trees. Such a system could continue pretty much indefinitely and may rightly be classified as sustainable yield: renewable energy with very little need for unnatural elements or practises. But somehow the use of wood as a fuel source is specifically included from a range of renewable energy and environmental improvement schemes, despite its advantages. Timber! The timber industry could benefit from similar rethinking. Plantations are gaining a reputation as the “green” option for the production of solid timber for use in construction or high-value products. The management required in plantations includes ploughing, ripping, spraying and fertilising for preparation, followed by more spraying and fertilising over time. Exotic species are used to avoid losses from local pests and diseases. This intensive management is designed to ensure that final harvest revenues don’t happen so far into the future that the “time cost of money” erodes the net profit. While not as intensive or invasive as agriculture, and orders of magnitude less intensive than the industries associated with plastic, steel or concrete products, plantations are never-the-less more intense and less natural than native forest management. In native forests, local or endemic species are kept even though growth is slower. Fertiliser is not applied, partially because its cost cannot be justified but also because the local species are commonly adapted to local soil fertility. Similarly, weedicide application is rare. Producing wood products in such a forest is slower, and to produce the same amount requires a larger area. One hectare of intensively managed plantation can produce the same amount of solid wood product as 30-to-50 hectares of native eucalypt forest. But the managed native forest will have a greater diversity of tree sizes and stages, and only relatively small areas of disturbance. The vast majority of the forest simply grows and changes in a natural way , which is orders of magnitude better for birds and animals. There is a strong branch of forest management in Europe called “ nature-based forestry ” or “ near natural silviculture ” that attempts to make human induced disturbances during harvesting or regeneration as close to natural-like conditions as possible. Visitors need special training to detect the difference between the human induced changes and the natural ones. But, like high-technology systems, plantations are seen as the “green” alternative to low-technology native forest management. Green values The “green” alternatives market has been captured by systems that require high levels of technology, energy inputs and processing. Is the ultimate green goal is to leave nature altogether, replacing nature-based solution with technological ones – perhaps ultimately living in space stations powered by solar cells measured in kilometres? Machines could make our air, water and nutrients out of raw mineral stocks mined from asteroid belts without impinging on natural earth at all. A “green” but precarious future totally reliant on sophisticated technology. To be green and natural, we must re-engage with nature. Recall battles over battery chickens. The battle against that industry could not have commenced until the connection between the product (the egg) and the system (chickens in backyards or battery farms created by us) was re-established. Many urban children have never seen a farm or even touched a chicken. Similarly a battle for green and natural alternatives can only be commenced once the connection between natural systems that produce goods and services are appreciated and compared with unnatural and energy demanding systems that they have been replaced by. Cris Brack does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations. Continue reading
More For Less
By Anna Simet | August 20, 2013 When Zeachem was scouting a location for the company’s 250,000-gallon-per-year demonstration-scale biorefinery, locating next to a pre-existing, 28,000-acre hybrid poplar plantation in Boardman, Ore., was a no-brainer. As Zeachem’s primary partner, Forest Stewardship Council-certified GreenWood Tree Farm Fund is under contract to harvest, chip and transport poplar feedstock to the biorefinery, which consumes 10 bone dry tons (BDT) per day and is located just five miles away. The company will continue to supply Zeachem with hybrid poplar when it completes its first commercial plant. Poplar trees and some other types of dedicated energy crops offer a distinct advantage over biomass residuals—much more feedstock per acre, says Carrie Atiyeh of Zeachem. “If you look at the volume of biomass you’re able to produce per acre from poplar trees, it’s in the range of about 10 to 15 bone dry tons (BDT) per acre, so it has a very high density,” she says. “Biomass residuals, depending on type and location, amount to about 2 to 3 tons per acre. Poplar allows for a much smaller footprint in terms of the number of acres needed, and that cuts down on managing and transportation costs, and emissions profiles.” Poplar trees mature in 3 years and regenerate after being cut at the stem, only needing to be replanted after five harvests, or 15 years, Atiyeh says. “We call it our ‘storage-on-the-stump’ strategy, part of which is co-locating our refineries with our feedstock source, as it really minimizes the logistical costs of our biofuel and biochemical production.” Wheat straw, abundant in the region, is also used at the plant. Atiyeh describes the company’s feedstock strategy as utilizing 60 to 70 percent from a dedicated energy crop, and ag residue for the remainder. Technology and the Future In a nutshell, Zeachem’s technology platform uses hydrolysis to break down biomass into sugars, which are fermented to produce acetic acid. The acetic acid may be purified into an intermediate chemical used in the production of paint or inks—a $16 billion annual global market—or be sent through a recovery and conversion process to produce ethyl acetate. The ethyl acetate can be sold into the coating and adhesive market, or reacted with hydrogen to produce cellulosic ethanol. Right now, Zeachem is continuing to optimize production at its demo unit to collect all data needed to bring on line its first commercial plant. “We’re operating on what we call ‘campaign mode,” which means the plant is running for a certain amount of time to meet specific performance target in terms of production and efficiency, making sure all individual process units are optimized,” Atiyeh says. Chemicals produced at the demonstration plant are being used for internal testing purposes, but Atiyeh says as larger quantities are produced, Zeachem intends to sell them into the chemical and consumer markets. The commercial facility, a 25 MMgy facility currently under development, will also be located in Boardman, adjacent to the demo plant. “A benefit here is the really tight logistics, Atiyeh reiterates. The further it is to transport feedstock, the more impacts on the economics. That’s why we liked the Boardman area—access to existing resources. “That’s a strategy we’re procuring as we move forward into commercial production.” Author: Anna Simet Managing Editor, Biomass Magazine asimet@bbiinternational.com 701-751-2756 Continue reading
The Farm As A Forest
Anju Agnihotri Chaba : Jalandhar, Fri Aug 09 2013 The forests cannot take over farmland, but they can send their trees there. Farmers in Punjab are warming up to agro-forestry as the government sets about efforts to replenish the state’s dwindling green cover. It is under 7 per cent when the minimum required is 20 per cent, and when the National Forest Policy envisages 33 per cent countrywide. “About 83 per cent of Punjab’s area is under crops and as such it cannot be converted into reserve forest. The only alternative is agro-forestry,” says conservator of forests Gurbaj Singh. “Some farmers are doing well in agro-forestry but a larger area needs to be brought under it.” Harjit Singh Dhami of Khun-Khun Khurad village in Hoshiarpur was farming wheat and paddy farming till a decade ago. He found labour and production cost too high and started experimenting with a new option. He first planted eucalyptuses and poplars along the perimeter of his wheat and paddy fields. The returns, when they began to come, encouraged him to expand and he has now dedicated 70 acres in five villages to agro-forestry. He points at neatly lined eucalyptuses on one of his farms, in Hardo Khanpur village, and says every acre can earn him Rs 8 to 10 lakh after seven years while the cost of saplings and maintenance is next to nothing. Compared to other crops, little labour is required. The trees have also improved the quality of his soil, he says. And they are largely pest-free. Agro-forestry need 90 per cent less pesticide, insecticide and fertiliser than paddy does. The water it needs is not even 20 per cent of what paddy consumes; after two or three years the plants survive on rainwater alone. Dhami, who took land on contract for agro-forestry, is looking at crores in seven years after investing a few lakhs. Eucalyptuses harvest in seven years, some other trees in five. One can cut these according to need from the third year of plantation. The demand for timber and plywood from the construction and paper-making industries is huge. “In the third year trees can be used as poles, as filler material in plywood, and as pulp in paper-making,” says Dhami. Harpreet Pal Singh, who is foresting 25 acres at Rahimpur village in Jalandhar district, says the first two years also allow intercropping of wheat and maize. The rainy season is the best for planting, say farmers. The trend started only a few years ago. Punjab has been grappling with a water table gone down, and soil and air pollution due to use of fertiliser, insecticide and pesticide. It is looking at diversification and agro-forestry has emerged as an option. Farmers were initially reluctant but are now taking up small-term (three to four years) and long-term (six to seven years) investment options, says Davinder Singh, who himself has been an agro-forester for decades, long before it became a trend. Singh, who has 16-acre farm at Nainowal Jattan village in Hoshiarpur, is encouraging marginal farmers to take it up. “Because of the good returns, we have been able to motivate a large number of marginal farmers to go for inter-cropping with agro-forestry,” says Hoshiarpur forest officer Dev Raj. “This used to be done by big farmers once. Now marginal farmers are growing trees along with maize, wheat, sugarcane.” Around 70 to 80 per cent of Hoshiarpur’s farmers, mostly marginal, are engaging in agro-forestry along with farming of other crops, he estimates. Sodhi Singh of Sherpur Golind village, Hoshiarpur, grows maize, sugarcane, wheat and paddy besides his poplar and safeda trees. “We rotate the land for farming. After taking the tree crop, we cultivate wheat or paddy on the same land, which gives grains of very good quality as tree cultivation improves the quality of the soil,” he says. “Earlier, rows of trees could be seen only on the sides of the field. Now one can see blocks of trees scattered around the fields in various districts of Punjab,” says Dr Avtar Singh, head of the department of forestry and natural resources at Punjab Agricultural University. “The trees have started moving to farmland, which is a good option under the government’s diversification policy,” he says. He says farmers were overusing pesticides and fertilisers for a higher production of wheat and paddy without thinking of the long-term impacts. Crop diversification through agro-forestry, he says, can be done by systematic growing of trees along with agriculture crops. Continue reading
