Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Harvesting of prairie biomass for energy?

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Harvesting of prairie biomass for energy?
  • Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 11:31:02 -0500

Toby Hemenway wrote:

I'm at an ag conference in Guelph, Ontario and just learned about
http://www.reap-canada.com

They harvest prairie biomass in early spring. Dried plants, pelletized and
burned without the ethanol step. 10:1 ERoEI compared to ethanol's 1:1, and
the prairie stays intact. 50lbs/acre of nitrogen added instead of corn's
160, and as they improve the mix of N-fixers that will improve further.

How do they improve the mix of N-fixers? Where do they get the cultures of
N-fixing bacteria? I have been curious about this regarding orchard-based
alley cropping schemes
utilizing various weeds, wildflowers, native legumes, even eleagnus and some
carefully-chosen off-site
seeds and plants. No kudzu this time, though. The challenge is in upgrading and stabilizing colonies of nitrogen fixing bacteria that are natural symbionts for the legumes on site and those imported from offsite.





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page