Business

Closing the loop (Or will Lincolnshire’s livestock farming be coming to town?)

The recent unease around applications to develop super dairies in Lincolnshire as well as the food versus bio -fuel argument has thrown in sharp relief the whole issue of how to sustainably close the loop of food and fuel production. Set this against the background of a densely populated island where food and energy security are becoming increasingly significant and the stage is set for some very robust debates!

It is clear that to successfully arrive at a cycle such as the one below will require a rethink on the scale of operational relationships between agriculture, food and renewable energy production. The implication is that larger units will be required at all stages of the process if a balanced cycle is to be achieved consistent with the levels of investment required by the bio fuel and the anaerobic digestion sectors. This will have a proportionately greater impact on agricultural practices and philosophies than the others.

The diagram above has been developed from the conclusions within a recent report by AEC Technology plc for DECC and managed by the National Non Food Crops Centre (www.nnfcc.co.uk) entitled ‘Closing the Loop – Optimising Food, Fuel & Energy Production Opportunities in the UK’.

This agricultural upsizing will be necessary to minimise the movement of the bulkier, lower value items such wet distillers’ grains, manure and digestate as illustrated above to avoid transport costs, overall traffic movements and CO₂ emissions. The livestock units will need to be large with the animal populations numbered in the thousands and closely clustered around the bio-fuel plant. A crucial challenge may therefore be “selling” the concept of industrial scale animal units to the general public. The strength of the adverse publicity relating the recent Nocton Dairy proposal for an 8,100 milking herd is a case in point. The issues raised included the perceived effects of vehicle movements, visual impact, odour and emotive issues raised under the ‘factory farming’ banner. All of these will need to be addressed at the outset of any ‘closing the loop’ projects.

Could one answer be to re evaluate their location, as in the AEC report, and move them onto industrial, brown-field sites? In doing so a number of organic by product streams and reprocessing activities could be co located thus supporting the whole carbon cycle of food and fuel production. The selection of a brown-field location reduces many of the alleged impacts on the rural environment. Careful explanation and communications strategies will be essential to be able to counter the perceived issues of animal welfare in large units.

The AEC study indicated that where several stages of the cycle were brought into close proximity the carbon savings and financial benefits were greatest. Such co location of industrial processes then raises the possibility of bringing extra by product streams into the AD stage increasing the fertiliser strength (value) of the digestate, and increasing the biogas production with a surplus of bio-methane coming to the market as a transport fuel. The selection of an industrial site may also allow future proofing of the whole process by facilitating the inclusion of additional downstream processes such as the production of biochar for carbon sequestration/soil improvement and the production of pyrolysis oils as the technology becomes proven. The densified biochar could also be moved economically over longer distances for soil improvement or offered for co-firing in other renewable energy generation systems.

Given that the UK population is concentrated in large urban settlements yet appears to value a biodiverse and preserved landscape whilst requiring to be fed at an “affordable” cost then a debate on the establishment of sustainable cyclic production structures including a sensitive industrialisation of agriculture seems worth undertaking.

Launching the Lincolnshire Biomethane for Road Transport Action Plan

Lincolnshire County Council has begun work on the development of a viable market place for biomethane as a road fuel with the publication of the findings of a study on a low carbon transport by Mouchel and the findings of a stakeholder workshop held at the EPIC Centre earlier this year.

The action plan’s Executive Summary included the following conclusions:

• Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from transport are significant in Lincolnshire, representing 37% of all carbon emissions;
• Whilst HGV’s and buses are essential to a thriving county there is a need to reduce the county’s carbon footprint;
• Dual fuelled and gas vehicles offer a minimal risk stepping stone towards a low carbon transport future (there are an estimated 10 million gas powered vehicles in use across the world based around well established technologies)
• The use of biogas as a vehicle fuel offers significant commercial and environmental benefits:
1. It can provide cost benefits over the use of fossil transport fuels
through reduced fuel costs and fiscal incentives;
2. It is a more efficient way of reducing CO2 emissions than using it
to generate electricity;
3. It achieves significant air quality improvements including
particulate and noise reduction;
• There are significant resources in Lincolnshire that could act as feedstocks for the production of biogas from anaerobic digestion
• Initial analysis suggests that the conversion to biomethane of all 1,705 vehicles surveyed during the high level analysis would save 168,156 tonnes CO2 / annum – over 9% of the current transport emissions in the County;
• With the recent introduction and adjustment of fiscal incentives, there are now viable business models for the generation of biogas for fuel production and use;
• There are cost savings and benefits to public and private sector fleet operators and to fuel producers for producing biogas, converting it to biomethane and utilising it as a vehicle fuel.

As a result of this work a fleet of biomethane powered buses is being established and will be under commercial evaluation on the roads of Lincolnshire during 2010 and a fuelling station will be opening shortly in Lincoln.

Whilst the fuel for this project will come from a landfill collection system discussions are already underway with interested parties within Lincolnshire to expand this to supplies from Anaerobic Digestion facilities. The potential for further filling station facilities elsewhere in the county is being studied.

Watch this space for updates!
 

Is Bio-methane a potential low carbon road fuel for Lincolnshire?

How long will it be before we see a scene like this in Lincolnshire?

On the 19th of May a meeting at the EPIC Centre began the first stages of the development of an action plan for bio-methane as a viable low carbon road fuel for Lincolnshire.

The meeting opened with a presentation on Lincolnshire County Council's objective to significantly reduce its carbon footprint through the use of bio-methane in its own vehicles and those of its transport contractors. Alongside this were the first results of a study showing the potential for Lincolnshire to produce bio-methane and the location of some of the potential user fleets.

The meeting heard from the practitioners in the field of generating bio-methane by anaerobic digestion of food and agricultural byproducts and how the resulting gas can be handled and used within diesel engines.

The next steps will be the production of an action plan to set up a supply infrastructure and to put the first demonstartion vehicles onto Lincolnshire's roads. Watch this space for further developments.

The presentations are provided as pdf's below.

Biomethane as a Road Fuel for Lincolnshire - presentations from 19th May 2009