Comments on: An Unlikely Renewable Bottleneck: Machines to Harvest Weeds

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 19:29:00 +0000

Canada grows hemp legally now, and the same problems are bound to ‘crop’ up! With America gently awakening to the new realities, and on the job again solutions are bound to flow!

By: Susan Kraemer

Susan Kraemer — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:35:18 +0000

Hi Ormond – didn’t know you designed farm machinery

By: Susan Kraemer

Susan Kraemer — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:19:54 +0000

Looks like your company is ahead of us Yanks. Bring your machinery out here for a trade show. We have a ton o land!

By: Susan Kraemer

Susan Kraemer — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:18:43 +0000

Are you in Ireland? There is a lot less land there than here.

By: Bill Madigan

Bill Madigan — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:42:55 +0000

Its not the rhyzome production or the planting that is causing the bottleneck it is the availability of land. If you know where there is a few thousand acres needing to be planted just let me know. Bill.

By: Bill Madigan

Bill Madigan — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:32:17 +0000

Our company has been growing Miscanthus in Ireland for years and we have developed a range of machinery to harvest ,process and plant Miscanthus. We can produce all the machines you want and all the boilers you need to burn Miscanthus from 25 kw to 4000kw. The key to Miscanthus is quality rhizomes and precission planting.

By: Ormond Otvos

Ormond Otvos — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:30:21 +0000

You can count on Americans for this kind of innovation. Some farm boy will come up with a biodiesel turbocharged carbide-tipped analog of a potato planter, complete with GPS steering and 24 hour a day robotic operation.

I could design one in about ten minutes.

By: MD

MD — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 21:41:22 +0000

I’ve always argued that this is what should be done with CRP land, instead of .GOV paying someone to do nothing with the land, the land should be tree or seed bombed.

By: Bucketofsquid

Bucketofsquid — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:31:35 +0000

The key is to move beyond traditional farming thought patterns. Instead of entire fields dedicated to this stuff, it could be grown on the periphery of fields growing other crops (carefully to prevent field contamination by unwanted spread) and in areas that are generally grazing land. This would give a dual benefit for grazing areas because it can feed the cattle and what isn’t grazed can be harvested for fuel production.

One concern I have is that high energy plants tend to deplete the soil so maybe this has a 7 year lifespan to allow the soil to recover. Maybe a multi-field crop rotation? By starting with 1 set of growing areas and adding more each year you can create a situation where the machinery is used each year. There is also the professional planter/harvester model where someone owns the machine and rents out their services as needed to those that don’t own the machines.

By: Susan Kraemer

Susan Kraemer — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:59:49 +0000

Wow, that is a serious concept? I had never heard of that. Very ingenious. The fact that Lockheed Martin is involved makes it a real swords to plowshares story, doesn’t it! Must check that out.

By: Susan Kraemer

Susan Kraemer — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 19:57:15 +0000

That is a good point. Once the machinery is there to plant it, it can reproduce. (Maybe that is one economic factor slowing the machinery development? That it is a hefty investment for a once in 7 years need?)

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 18:36:45 +0000

Bomb it! : http://www.wellhome.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Tree_Bombing_Final1.png

By: sola

sola — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:56:48 +0000

Don’t forget that Miscanthus doesn’t need to be re-planted every year.

If you plant Miscanthus x Giganteus one year, it will produce biomass for at least another 7-10 years.

Even if it seems slow to plant them, it is a one-time only work for a long production period.

However, I agree, that specialized machinery would be nice for the ultra-quick deployment of Miscanthus because that would lower the cost of this promising biomass source.