WINNIPEG — Engineers shouldn’t assume crop residue is a worthless byproduct of farming, says the director of agri-food innovation and adaptation for Manitoba Agriculture.
Daryl Domitruk recently told the Canadian Society for Bio-Engineering’s annual meeting that Canadian engineers and scientists are developing innovative processes to convert agricultural byproducts into biofuel or other forms of energy.
However, the engineers designing those systems need to remember that the farmer supplying the feedstock expects to be compensated for his contribution.
“People will come to us with the notion that byproducts of agriculture are waste,” said Domitruk, who heads a government group studying agriculture and renewable energy.
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What this means, added Jeff Kraynyk, an agri-energy specialist who works in Domitruk’s team, is a tendency for producers of renewable energy to assume crop residue is free.
“During the earlier days, when people started looking at … ag residue as a feedstock for a whole variety of energy streams, there was kind of an assumption that you were almost doing the farmer a favour (by taking it).”
Most renewable fuel innovators now realize they have to pay for agricultural residue, but Domitruk said the price is increasing as farmers spend more on inputs.
“It has a value and that value is increasingly tied to what a farmer has to invest to produce a product and its byproduct. That (investment) continues to increase.”
Ag residue also has a long-term value in terms of soil fertility, which should be incorporated into its price.
Yet, the price for straw is still primarily based on location, a particular industrial process and what is being produced, Kraynyk said.
“I know that I’ve seen some feasibility studies (for renewable energy) that were in that $20 per tonne range (for straw). And I’ve seen others that were $60 to $70 per tonne,” he said.
“So, I think it’s going to be little while before we have any kind of standardized pricing.”
Domitruk said engineers and renewable energy experts also need to understand the economic realities of agriculture.
For example, it’s often assumed that farmers in Western Canada have vast amounts of unused “wasteland” that could be used to grow a biofuel crop.
“I still find that term thrown around. I’m not sure there is wasteland anymore,” Domitruk said.
Crops grown for energy will have to provide the same or better returns than conventional crops.
“We have to ensure, if we are developing a new crop … that it can compete for acres against the major commodities.”
Domitruk said there are some industries, such as hemp and camelina, where Canadian engineers, scientists and agricultural experts are collaborating to develop renewable energy while keeping farmers in mind.
In the case of camelina, engineers are refining the process of turning camelina oil into aviation fuel as plant scientists develop better yielding varieties of the oilseed.
“You’ve got camelina breeding going on at the same time as camelina market development,” he said.
David Levin, a biosystems engineering professor from the University of Manitoba, said Manitoba engineers and scientists have an opportunity to play a leading role in the development of renewable aviation fuels such as camelina.
Last year, the National Research Council, Rolls Royce and Pratt and Whitney opened a jet engine testing centre in Thompson, Man. Levin said the centre, which is designed to test engines in cold environmental conditions, could also be used to test plant based aviation fuel.
