BIOENERGY

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BIOENERGY SALINITY CONTROL IN WHEATBELT
AGRICULTURE

• John Bartle, Farm Forestry Unit
• WA Department of Conservation and Land Management

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SALINITY IS A VERY LARGE PROBLEM
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SALINITY TREATMENTS ARE COMPLEX AND COSTLY

JRBartle Feb02
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THE SALINITY DILEMMA

• Cost of salinity is large.
• Cost of the solution is also large.
• Tempting to learn to live with the problem??
• But likely that we will be compelled by
  domestic and international legal and political
  forces to take remedial action.
• Present national policy response lacks
  understanding of the scientific, economic and
  social dimensions of salinity (Pannell 2000).

JRBartle Feb02
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HOW DO WE CREATE NEW PERENNIAL CROPS?

• Make them profitable!!
• Develop agricultural systems that integrate
  perennials with the conventional annual species.
• Develop the industries and markets to support the
  new perennial crops and pastures.
• Be prepared for a large RD investment.

JRBartle Feb02
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SCALE OF WOODY CROP INDUSTRIES?

• Probably need to aim for 20 to 40 woody
  perennial plant cover across southern Australia.
• Area of low rainfall or wheatbelt agriculture in
  southern Australia is 60 million ha.
• Biomass productivity can be estimated from
  experience with mallee in WA. Annual average
  yield of biomass on a fresh weight basis is 15
  tonnes/ha/yr.

JRBartle Feb02
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POTENTIAL WOODY BIOMASS PRODUCTION

JRBartle Feb 02
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WHAT INDUSTRIES COULD CONSUME BIOMASS ON THIS
VAST SCALE?
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INDUSTRY OPTIONS

• Extend existing industries
• Grazing perennials for meat and wool
• Conventional forestry for timber production
• Create entirely new industries
• Based on low cost biomass production from short
  rotation crops
• Others

JRBartle Feb02
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WOODY CROP TYPES

• Long-rotation tree crops Long term (20 to 40
  years) crops managed to produce sawlogs or
  specialty timber.
• Short-rotation coppice crops Short harvest cycle
  (2 to 5 years) crops that regenerate or coppice
  from the stump after harvest.
• Short-rotation phase crops A crop grown as a
  short (2 to 5 years) phase as part of crop
  rotation. Planted by seed .
• Fodder crops Usually short-lived perennials
  shrubs for intermittent grazing.

JRBartle Feb02
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JRBartle Feb02
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PRODUCT OPTIONS
Size ratings Large is gt1 M ha, medium 100 000 -
1 M ha, small lt100 000 ha.
JRBartle Feb02
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PRODUCT PROSPECTS 2020
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MALLEE A NEW PERENNIAL CROP CASE STUDY

• Oil mallee development appears promising
  commercial operations emerging.
• Progress with mallee is the result of carefully
  planned RD, not serendipity.
• Mallee fundamentals could be more widely applied.
• Only constraint is the scale of potential biomass
  production - large markets will be required.

JRBartle Feb 02
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INTEGRATED MALLEE PROCESSING FEASIBILITY STUDY
CSIRO RD since 1970s gt2 million spent
Enecon Licensee for CSIRO Developed ITP concept
Study manager
1999 - ITP Feasibility Study 250,000 Feed
costs Carbon trials Plant costs Financial analysis
Oil Mallee Co CALM RD planting through
1990s cost gt18 million 900 growers 17 million
trees
JVAP funds through RIRDC Industry funds through
Western Power Corp.
Enecon 2001. Integrated tree processing of mallee
eucalypts. RIRDC publication 01/160
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Turbine
Steam
Electricity
Whole Tree Feed
Combustion WH Boiler
Boilers Internal WH
Steam
Water Gas
Heat
Heat
Carbonisation Plant
Activated Carbon Plant
Wood
Activated Carbon
Charcoal
Wood/Leaf Separation
Gasification WH Boiler
Ash for Recycling
Spent Leaves
Oil Distillation Plant
Eucalyptus Oil
Leaf Material
INTEGRATED MALLEE PROCESSING FOR RENEWABLE
ENERGY, ACTIVATED CARBON AND EUCALYPTUS OIL
Enecon Pty Ltd - Oct. 2000
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INDICATIVE COSTS AND REVENUES

• For a processing plant to use 100,000 tonne/year
  of green, whole tree mallee feed
• Opportunity cost for trees 15/tonne
• Harvest and delivery 15/tonne
• Capital cost of plant 25 million
• Direct employment gt 40 (jobs handling
  processing)
• Total revenue approx. 16 million/year
• Activated carbon 3,500 tonne
• Eucalyptus oil 1,000 tonne
• Electricity 5 MW
• Nominal share of feedstock cost by products
• activated carbon is 35 of feedstock can pay
  35/tonne for chip
• eucalyptus oil is 1 of feedstock can pay
  1000/tonne
• electricity is 64 of feedstock only needs to
  pay 8/tonne for the waste

Enecon Pty Ltd - Oct. 2000
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IMP POTENTIAL

• each IMP requires 100 000 tonnes feedstock/year
  from 10 000 ha mallees
• each IMP factory with mallee resource base will
  cost 45m
• potential for a 9 IMP factories in the wheatbelt
  with 90 000ha of planting at capital cost of
  405 m
• this is less than 2 of the target woody
  perennial crop area for the WA wheatbelt!

JRBartle Feb02
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MALLEE FUNDAMENTALS

• United farmer participation
• Amenable to large scale production systems and
  economies of scale
• Locked-in local processing ensures community
  support
• Short rotation means easy financing and farmer
  ownership
• Dispersed belt layout needs farmers in management
  control
• Multiple products with efficient integrated
  processing means bioenergy options for
  residues/wastes
• Compatibility with agricultural practice
• Native species advantage (adaptation, genetics,
  biodiversity)

JRBatle Feb 02
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CONCLUSIONS

• Commercially viable woody perennial crops are
  essential for building sustainable agricultural
  systems.
• There is great promise and great challenge in
  development of woody perennial crops, especially
  SRCs.
• Integrated processing of multiple products
  enables full biomass utilisation and achieves
  major processing economies.
• Without very large scale penetration of energy
  markets it will not be possible to achieve
  salinity control on a large scale in Australia.

JRBartle Feb02