Agricultural Residues Harvest Systems

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Objective(s)

Objectives of this Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) project include:

• Determine the amount of crop residues available from conventional harvest systems currently employed.
   
• Develop improved harvest systems that reduce biomass losses, improve or preserve biomass quality, and reduce the cost of biomass collected.
   
• Evaluate the potential for novel harvest systems to improve the quality and quantity of residues collected, particularly flax, as a bioproduct feedstock for natural fibre products.
   
• Provide detailed quantity, quality, energy, and carbon/nitrogen cycle data to model and analyze the biomass system.
   
• Evaluate the energy potential of residues by conversion to ethanol; gasification to heat, power, and chemicals; and pyrolysis for the production of BioOils for energy and chemicals.

Description

Biomass harvest, post-harvest/pre-processing, and conversion are important areas of technology development for the biomass, bioenergy, and bioproducts sectors. Most harvest systems currently employed are optimized for conventional grain and feed materials but are not suited for collecting high quality crop residues for industrial biomass feedstocks. Opportunities exist to reduce the overall cost of biomass collection, improve its quality, and increase process yield. Factors including crops, species, field conditions, and harvesting methods must be taken into consideration for technology development. This project consists of examining and improving process efficiency of conventional harvest systems, evaluating the potential of novel harvest systems, acquiring an in depth understanding of the biomass system, developing technologies for effective biomass processing, and assessing energy potential of crop residues for conversion to useful products (using fermentation, gasification, and pyrolysis). A main focus of this research will be on the comparison of conventional and novel harvest systems in particular, conventional header and stripper header technologies. Stripper header technology will be evaluated for harvest losses of grain, improvements in biomass harvest yield, and cleanliness. Factors including total bale weights, grain loss, fibre quality and quantity will be assessed for flax straw and wheat. Thermal and ethanol conversion of biomass data will also be generated as part of this study. This data will include spring versus fall biomass information to address the potential for biomass quality changes when biomass is left unharvested during winter. Additional project initiatives include field demonstrations involving PAMI (Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute), industrial collaborators, and agricultural producers to generate producer scale biomass, grain, energy, and operational data. Farm scale demonstrations of improved harvest systems for wheat, barley, and flax in addition to the collection of hand sample and field biomass will also be performed for industrial evaluation.

In-Field Demonstration of Stripper Header
Technology

Significant Outcomes

This project will generate a compilation of data assessing the process efficiency of harvest systems and technologies used in biomass processing, and potential for conversion to useful products. Significant benefits from the stripper header technology are anticipated from this research. Preliminary results indicate that this technology may potentially reduce grain loss and increase the amount of residue available for harvest and export. However, more extensive demonstrations and quality evaluations of flax and wheat straw are warranted to improve the amount of straw available and quality of grain harvested in order to support this hypothesis.

Shelbourne Reynolds Stripper Header