Biomass availability and supply, potential and sustainability. Melvyn F. Askew Founder of Census-Bio Visiting Professor at Harper Adams University College Fellow of Fera, York

Deciding upon biomass potential and sustainability needs a focussed approach! It is not sufficient to report that in 2007 ( the last year for verified data) that EU grew 22.1 million ha of wheat; 8.8 million ha of grain maize; 5.4 million ha of oilseed rape and 1.9 million ha of sugar beet since yields and areas are constantly changing. Also this supply of material may have other, preferred uses and policy targets impinge upon its use too.

What are our objectives?  To add value to land-based industry?  To displace CO2 or other greenhouse producing products ?  To utilise erstwhile underutilised or non- utilised biomass materials?  To develop new crops and additional or new products?  To substitute for finite fossil fuel or other resources ?  To provide healthy food

Remember that some of the options listed earlier are conflicting. And what of food versus fuel? Who should decide on the priorities? What sort of timescales are envisaged?

An example of conflict within one crop – Miscanthus. Approximate values in £ sterling for differing uses of the same crop.  Power generation £ per tonne  Equine bedding £45-70 per tonne  Bagged equine bedding £ per tonne  Organic straw £ 70 per tonne  Industrial use/ composites £70 per tonne

Crops may have different potential for the same use ( data from Venturi, 2001) Sorghum t/ha = GJ/ha Hemp 8-15 t/ha= GJ/ha Miscanthus 15-30t/ha= GJ/ha Giant Reed t/ha= GJ/ha Kenaf t/ha= GJ/ha

Clearly the agriculturalist may prefer a market based solely upon maximum profit margin whilst others may prefer other uses instead, in which case an incentive will be needed to encourage change. However incentives in the past have not always been too successful, perhaps because of policy changes occuring too quickly?

Land-based industry is not working in a vacuum !  Recycling of nylon materials  Re-use of plastics to utilise waste but at the same time displace wood.  Consumer habits – widening choice of foods but increasing waste – 30+% by weight of purchased food could be wasted  Municipal biomass has a negative value so could competes heavily with some purpose- grown materials.

In reality the marketplace drives demand and production to meet its ‘needs’.

Do marketplaces consider or even recognise sustainability?  The definition of sustainability is that to be sustainable a product must be economically viable; have an environmentally acceptable cost and have acceptable cultural/social impacts.  As an example, does palm oil being used for biofuels manufacture appear sustainable?  Perhaps we conclude that the marketplace only deals with economics?

Potential markets for biorenewables are immense ( see but  Policies for their exploitation even where they exist are piecemeal and often of short duration.  There is little demand for change in many parts of industry  The general public ( and perhaps industry too) have little idea of what is available and its potential benefits in terms of sustainability.  Three examples follow:

Finished Product – eco one

Hemcrete ® Better Than Carbon Neutral Building

AGRICULTURAL COMMODITY PRICES CAN BE VERY VARIABLE  Milling wheat 2007=£176/t;2008=£125/t  Feed wheat 2007=£148/t; 2008+£82/t  Barley 2007= £142/t; 2008= £82/t  OSR 2007 and 2008 =circa £240/t  Peas and beans average 2007 =£ 200/t; 2008= £105/t  Wot does this do to food or fuel demands?

And we have the little understood process of global warming

So the future is very uncertain... But at present we in EU produce many major staple crops which could be better exploited

Biorefractionation or biorefining permit maximal utilisation of plant components.

Biofractionation Hemp Fibre + Shiv + Seed P. Paper + Composites + Textiles Animal bedding + Composites Food + Fishing + Chemistry

Schematic overview general integrated biorefinery process. Source: J. Sanders (2006)

So, to some real time examples:

Winter wheat  Has a harvest index of approx 50% ( 50 % of above ground dry matter is grain)  For a 10 tonne per ha grain wheat crop about 10 tonnes of straw are grown. A proportion is need to maintain organic matter in the soil but I suggest that at least half of that straw would be available for new biomass markets (5 tonnes per ha!)Eg paper; silica; cosmetics; bioethanol.

Maize  Grain maize production is moving northward quite rapidly. It even occurs in The Midlands of England  Maize stover has a range of uses but focus is currently upon production of bioethanol from it. And.....NB that lignin may not just be a low value co-product from bioethanol production but may be a basis for future aromatic chemistry

Grassland – a diverse grouping of forage crops for livestock and amenity.  According to Riveros of FAO ‘Grassland covers about two thirds of the agricultural land area of the earth. Its potential dry matter yield is about 40 billion tonnes per annum but yield [achieved] is less than one third of that.’  Up to 50 million tonnes per annum of grain for livestock feed could be released for other uses if grassland production was to be improved.

Sugar beet  Recent changes in the EU Sugar regime have caused beet factory closures, in principle reducing sugar supply from EU and reducing its [adverse] impact on world markets.  Redundant beet factories and land freed from sugar beet production could be used to produce fodder beet for bioethanol production..but..no one thought of that!

The oilseeds  Oilseeds are energy-rich. Yield seems lower than cereals though in terms of solar energy captured that may not be the case.  Systems of processing oilseeds are traditional and may not be the most sensible for development of additional produce. Eg hexane extraction.  Currently c.40% of the grain in rapeseed, for example, is oil and the rest a protein cake for animal ( ruminant) production.

Some conclusions  Land-based industry has huge potential to produce biomass in a range of forms.  A consistent, interlinked and durable system of developing biomass products within a stable policy framework over time is needed. But NB climate change and market forces  Many biomass products from agriculture have reasonable degrees of sustainability which could be enhanced by development of additional co-products.

Some more conclusions  Land-based business may have different targets from policy makers. Incentives to change will be required. Manufacturing industry too. Some policy makers eg in planning, seem unaware of potential for sustainable bio-products  Potential markets for bio-based materials in the industrial sector are enormous and generally ( excl biodiesel and starch in EU) rather undersupplied. Recycling may however compete.