Improving a machine that already exists is challenging, but building a machine from scratch is an entirely different matter.
Engineers at the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute (PAMI) in Portage la Prairie, Man., are attempting to do the latter as they build a mobile unit to cube biomass in the field.
“Biomass’s biggest challenge is transportation,” said PAMI vice-president Harvey Chorney.
Bales of flax straw and other crop residue are bulky and expensive to transport.
“What we’re looking at is a way to take any biomass source and try and come up with a way of densifying it (in the field),” he said.
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The problem, however, is that no such technology exists. Machines that can cube alfalfa in the field were built 30 years ago, but Chorney isn’t aware of one that can cube all types of biomass.
He said engineers are assembling a prototype at PAMI’s shop in Portage, but there’s a long way to go.
“We’ve got more questions than we’ve got answers.”
They recently received help when the Manitoba government announced $450,000 in funding for the project.
Wayne Digby, executive director of the Manitoba Forage Council, said the funding is encouraging.
“I’m pleased that they’re providing this support. It not only provides information for the whole bioenergy sector … but it also provides information for forage producers in Manitoba.”
He said the horse industry in Florida and Kentucky could be potential markets for cubed forage products.
For now, PAMI must finish assembling its prototype machine and then test it in-house this spring and in the field later this year.
The machine is designed to sit on a flat deck trailer rather than be self-propelled, which Chorney dismissed as impractical because of the varying types of biomass available on the Prairies.
A holding bin will meter out the biomass and feed it into the cuber, which is mounted near the rear of the flat deck.
Chorney said PAMI engineers adapted the cuber from an out-of-business alfalfa dehydration plant.
The biggest design challenge has been adapting the machine for all kinds of biomass, whether it be oat hulls or flax shives.
“Everything behaves differently,” Chorney said.
“So we’ve set all of the feeds on hydraulic power supplies so we can vary the speed of all of the material going through the unit.”
The end product will be one of two sizes, depending on the biomass.
“We’ve got two different dies for the cuber … either three-quarters of an inch by three quarters of an inch, or one that is an inch and an eighth square.”
Chorney said he is not sure if the cubes can be augered for transportation and storage.
“We think it may be touchy, kind of like beans … so belts might be better than augers.”
Either way, the cubes would be transported in semi-trailer grain haulers, which would be cheaper and more efficient than a forage stack mover.
