Written by SNWA Thursday, 01 April 2010 15:13
As part of its Woody Crop Harvesting System project, Future Farm Industries Cooperative Research Centre (FFI CRC) will officially launch the prototype Mallee Harvester in Narrogin on 13 April 2010.
This represents a quantum leap towards achieving a commercial Australian mallee industry and is the culmination of more than 15 years of research and development by the Western Australian Department of Environment and Conservation, Oil Mallee Company and the Future Farm Industries CRC.
For nearly 20 years, mallee trees have been planted by farmers in the Western Australian wheatbelt to such an extent they now constitute a resource for the region (around 12,000 hectares). This resource is expected to play an important role in attracting commercial mallee processing operations.
Australia’s developing mallee industry is entering its next phase as the technologies to convert mallee biomass to energy and other products become available. Emerging biomass conversion technologies, such as the pyrolysis process, produce biofuels through the heated chemical decomposition of plant material in the absence of oxygen. Biofuels created from woody biomass are almost carbon neutral and an efficient form of renewable energy.
Another technology central to establishing a commercial mallee industry is a fast, low cost per unit volume harvester. Unlike other harvesters in agriculture, a mallee harvester needs to cut down hardy, irregularly shaped and multi-stemmed trees and continuously chip them. The original prototype mallee harvester was developed in Western Australia between the mid 1990s and early 2000s by Western Australian engineer, Harley Pederick. At that time in Europe, sugar cane harvesters were being modified to harvest willow. This inspired a group of early mallee growers to purchase a second hand sugar cane harvester as the base from which to develop a mallee harvester. Harley joined the team and his work was fundamental in identifying and testing the components that make up the mallee harvester design of today.
In conjunction with Harley, research by the then Western Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management (now the Department of Environment and Conservation), supported by independent systems analysis, concluded that a single pass harvester process which converts the structurally complex mallee trees into a bulk chipped commodity had the greatest potential to reduce the per-tonne cost for the woody biomass supply chain for small trees. The study also showed that due to the diverse nature of the mallee family, a successful mallee harvester would have to be applicable to a wide range of small tree shapes and sizes, and this in turn would open the opportunity to develop other native Australian species as woody crop plants.
Realising the potential of the Western Australian mallee industry, energy company Verve Energy set up a pilot-scale Integrated Wood Processing (IWP) plant near Narrogin in 2005. Trial runs at the pilot IWP plant showed mallee biomass can generate commercial quantities of electricity while producing activated carbon and eucalyptus oil within an integrated plant. Using information collected from the pilot-scale plant trial, Verve Energy then conducted a Front End Engineering Design (FEED) process for a commercial scale IWP plant during 2008-09. In April 2009, Verve Energy stated it could be some time before a commercial mallee processing plant is established in Western Australia due to the current economic climate.
The promise revealed by the pilot IWP highlighted the need to rejuvenate harvester development and indeed to consider all the components in the farm to factory supply chain. FFI CRC took up the challenge of continuing the development of a mallee harvester in 2007 with the WA Department of Environment and Conservation in WA, the Oil Mallee Company and Verve Energy remaining partners in the project.
In June 2008, the Western Australian government announced it would provide $1.5 million to FFI CRC from its Low Emission Energy Development (LEED) fund to develop a prototype commercial mallee harvester. This funding was conditional upon FFI CRC attracting additional private sector funding. Biosystems Engineering was appointed by FFI CRC in March 2009 to conduct the project’s applied Research and Development (R&D) component including the design and manufacture of a prototype mallee harvester. This prototype is now ready to commence full scale field trials in Western Australia.
Adding to the commercial viability of the Australian Mallee Industry was the announcement by the Rainbow Bee Eater Company in October 2009 to construct the industry’s first biochar and renewable energy commercial node near Kalannie in the north eastern WA wheatbelt by mid 2010. While this project will start with feedstock from cereal stubble, it plans to gravitate to mallee biomass when an efficient harvester becomes available.
The FFI CRC Woody crop harvest systems project is also undertaking initial research on other parts of the farm-to-factory supply chain. In particular, the project is addressing some key issues such as on-farm biomass haulage, road transport and stockpiling.
What soil type ,rain fall, growth time to harvest, what Mod.x sugar cane harvesters.
Thanks Peter