Does production of biofuel mean less food production?
Food and bioenergy need not compete for land, instead, biofuel crops should be integrated into existing landscape and agricultural lands in a multifunctional approach to offer multiple benefits including use as fuel and for other ecosystem services.
Biomass Buffer Strips – using biomass crops in multipurpose land management
A buffer strip is an area of land which is either left uncultivated or planted with perennial grasses, shrubs and trees. Planting strips or alleys of perennial biomass crops on existing agricultural land can provide a number of important benefits in terms of flood management, soil recovery and improvements in biodiversity, in addition to providing a harvestable resource. Wider adoption could help better manage landscapes to be more resilient to the effects of climate change, mitigate flood risk, and reduce the environmental impacts of intensive agriculture.
Biomass Pelletisation: Influence of biomass characteristics on pellet quality
This article explores the critical issues in the biomass pelletisation process, biomass pellet characteristics and the standardisation of high-quality biomass pellets for energy production.
Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)
BECCS could provide an important mechanism to reduce emissions and remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere. However, full life-cycle assessment of biomass production and supply will be critical to ensure BECCS is truly net-negative and does not result in other deleterious effects on our natural environment or food production systems
Meet the Speakers at next week’s IBERS Demo Event
The first Biomass Connect Demo Event “Biomass harvesting and willow varieties” at our IBERS, Aberystwyth Hub Site is fast approaching, so here’s your chance to meet the speakers. William Macalpine, […]
SRC Willow for Environmental Protection and Wastewater Management
As part of the Biomass Connect Launch Event at the recent Low Carbon Agriculture show, Chris Johnston of the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) gave a fascinating talk on the […]
Poplar Farm Walk
Are you interested in planting poplar on your land? Or do you already have a poplar crop and want to know more about its management, harvesting and the potential markets? Whatever your questions, whether they concern agronomy, economics or logistics expert William Jackson will be able to provide all the answers.
Agricultural Student Opportunity
Calling all agricultural students! Are you interested in the Net Zero challenge and the role that biomass crops have in meeting these targets? If so, then read on. Envirocrops is […]
What effect does planting biomass crops have on soil carbon?
Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) is formed from the interaction of ecosystem processes such as photosynthesis, respiration and decomposition of SOM. Soil carbon provides the benefit of enhancing soil quality which is essential to sustain and improve food production, increase supply and quality of water, enhance biodiversity, and reduce atmospheric CO2. For these reasons, planting biomass crops help to improve soil quality, provide resilience to physical soil degradation and help mitigate climate change.
Biomass harvesting and willow varieties – Biomass Connect Demo Event
Come and join us for an afternoon learning about biomass crop harvesting and willow variety options at IBERS, Aberystwyth University.
The event will focus on harvesting approaches for willow and miscanthus crops, and an overview of the research undertaken between IBERS and Rothamsted Research into varieties of willow for biomass production.