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The Crops That Will Power Biofuels (Ethanol in Particular)

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The Crops That Will Power Biofuels (Ethanol in Particular) The Crops that will Power Biofuels (Ethanol in Particular) Scott Day P.Ag., Diversification Specialist Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives Box 519 Melita MB R0M 1L0 Telephone: 204-522-3256 Email: [email protected] “The Crops that Will Power Biofuels”: this is a huge topic with thousands of options and variables to consider. With this presentation I will try and focus on summarizing some of the research we have done at Manitoba’s Diversification Centres that is related to biofuel/ethanol feed stock evaluation. Our Diversification Centres have done work on Biodiesel feedstock sources as well but this presentation will focus on ethanol feedstocks. However, maybe the first question we should answer; is this even worth pursuing? When you look at today’s headlines it is easy to imagine that the “honeymoon” for biofuels is over and the “hangover” has begun. If you type “Biofuels being Bad” into Google the hits will number in the millions. However, this is a very big concept and it is impossible to summarize its future with one headline or news story. For Instance the technology of Homogeneous Compression Combustion Ignition (HCCI) engines has started to come into the limelight. Farmers and truckers might think of these engines by the less fancy name of “diesel engine”. However, they aren’t really diesel engines either. These engines have such precise computerized fuel delivery systems that they can burn all matter of fuels that are ignited by the heat from the cylinder’s compression rather than combustion initiated from a spark plug. What you essentially have is a gas engine that behaves like a diesel engine. Without getting too complicated these engines can burn “wet ethanol”, this is ethanol that still has water in it. Making ethanol takes considerable energy but removing all the water from the ethanol takes up the biggest chunk of that energy requirement. In talking to a person that has a small scale ethanol plant on his farm, almost 50% of the power the plant consumes is used to draw out every last drop of water from the ethanol. By leaving the water in the ethanol the energy use and balance becomes much more favorable for this system. All the big car makers have HCCI engines in the testing stages – although not all are burning wet ethanol. These HCCI engines while running on gasoline or ethanol also have much greater thermal efficiency than a regular gas engine and thus they can then achieve the same level of fuel savings that we commonly see with the comparable traditional diesel engines of today. When we see comments saying that the energy balance of ethanol from wheat or corn is very poor, well you can be rest assured there are technologies that are quickly changing in this industry that have the potential to improve efficiencies in leaps rather than small steps. Another interesting technology making biofuel production more efficient are these simple to use ionized resin pellets that are used to “Clean up” biodiesel. They are a very efficient and easy to use technology that removes the last bit of water and glycerin while producing biodiesel. Biofuels are here to stay. Canada has good potential for ethanol and biodiesel production, a 5% mandate of ethanol in all gasoline in this country would use up about 10% of our total annual crop production. We already import about $300 million in soymeal that could be partially displaced with more canola meal and DDG’s which are the byproducts of Biofuel production. Much of Canada’s livestock now heads south to be finished with the cheaper feed down there. We have excellent water and energy resources and we have a significant petroleum fuel infrastructure already in place in this country. In talking with the President of the Minnesota Corn Growers last year he mentioned that the production of corn for all segments of the industry has increased dramatically in his state. This answers somewhat the fuel versus food debate. Minnesota now produces an exponentially greater amount of corn form ethanol than it did just 5 years before. However, it also now produces significantly higher amounts of corn for food, feed and other industrial uses as well. The markets said to grow more corn and they simply now grow a lot more corn for every market. They have stopped growing crops that were being encouraged with crop subsidies (such as Oats) and are now growing what the market tells them to and that market says Corn. So let’s take a look at the how the different crops stack up in their production of ethanol per tonne or per acre. This information was mostly compiled by Solulski & Tarasoff in 1997 and was gleaned off of the Alberta Ag Website. Estimated Ethanol yield per tonne of grain (keep in mind there is great variability between varieties within each type of grain): • Winter Wheat: 392 litres/tonne • CPS & SWS Wheat: 382 litres/tonne • Triticale 382 litres/tonne • Durum 377 litres/tonne • CWRS & Rye: 364 litres/tonne • Corn – ethanol 400 l/tonne • Barley (hulless) 380 l/tonne • Peas (= corn) 250 l/tonne • Oats (hulless) 353 l/tonne • Oats (regular) 317 l/tonne When you look at average yields in Manitoba it can be said that Oats will actually produce the most ethanol per acre. However, the extensive hulls with oats can cause problems for distilling and the lower starch per tonne makes Oats less efficient in the system. Ethanol is made from Oats in Scandinavia but unique high value products are made from the Oat DDG which helps make their system profitable. An abundance of Oat DDG would not be able to consistently take advantage of this premium. Here is an estimate of ethanol yield per acre from various crops: Once again keep in mind that there can be huge differences in yields from one region, or even field, to the next: • Sugar Beets 2700 l/ac • Sugar Cane 2500 l/ac • Corn 1500 l/ac • Winter wheat 800 l/ac • Wheats, Barley 600 l/ac • One bushel Wheat = 10 litres ethanol It is interesting to note that there is a sugar beet processing plant sitting idle in this province when sugar beets have such great potential to produce ethanol. However, this crop is also expensive to grow and I have no idea whether ethanol production from sugar beets is feasible in Manitoba. I do know that Brazil produces vast amounts of ethanol from sugar cane and sugar beets so we know it is working there. It is easy to see from this chart why the US Ethanol industry is focused on Corn, however corn is not possible in most of the Prairies and that is why we are concentrating on the crops that are below the corn in this chart above. As a result of Manitoba Agriculture’s restructuring 4 years ago there was greater emphasis put on Diversification Centre’s in this province to help make quality research and new opportunities more assessable and possible for local producers. Right now there are four major crop diversification centres in Manitoba; PCDF at Roblin, Manitoba managed by Keith Watson and Jeff Kostuik and PESAI at Arborg, MB. managed by Paula Halabicki. There is CMCDC that is a joint effort between the Government of Canada and the Government of Manitoba based at Carberry – Clayton Jackson manages the efforts there and Tammy Jones with MAFRI works with Clayton and also is involved with their efforts in Portage and Winkler. Then there is WADO in Melita which is managed by myself, Scott Day, and Scott Chalmers. All of these groups became involved in the Prairie Wide Ethanol Screening Trials in 2007. This project is coordinated by Sherrilyn Phelps with AAFC and Dr. Curtis Pozniak at the U of S. The Ethanol Screening Trial committee came up with a list of varieties and crops that they feel have the best potential in Western Canada for ethanol production. Then these crops were grown at various sites across the Prairies including the Diversification Centre sites in Manitoba. These trials have been ongoing in Sask and Alta. since 2005. WADO was involved with this project last year and 2007 was the first year of wide spread participation in Manitoba. Here is their list of the possible top ethanol producers and therefore were included in these trials: • Superb & Barrie – checks • AC Crystal, AC Vista, 5700PR – fair leaf rust, sprouting fair, FHB very poor – CPS wheats • AC Andrew, Bhishaj, SWS 349,389,366,HY475 – leaf rust MR/MS, sprouting Fair, FHB very poor – Soft White wheats • Ashby, Chablis – British spring wheats, leaf rust good, sprouting good, FHB poor (Chiraz is included in this group as well) CPSR class (possibly) • Hoffman, Nass – Eastern Canadian wheats, FHB is not good, stem rust very poor, tall straw. • McGwire – Hulless Barley • AC Ultima – Triticale It is always a good thing to do independent testing with most things in agriculture. Two of the top candidates for ethanol production on our list; Hoffman and AC Andrew, came from the owner with disease ratings far more favorable that what was observed in 2007 (which was a low disease year!). Hoffman had a rating of R for Fusarium Head Blight (FHB). However, in the Fusarium screening trails conducted elsewhere in Manitoba it showed to be very susceptible. The same goes for AC Andrew where it had a somewhat favorable rating on FHB but in the FHB screening trials it once again did very poorly. Hoffman also showed to be very susceptible to stem rust, which basically means it is not suited to Manitoba. The British wheats in this trial looked to have excellent potential but they were later maturing and I am sure this negatively affected them because of the heat and drought that dominated the last half of 2007.
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