Hot topic that has been smouldering away for years - grow your own diesel

Eleven years ago I researched an article about farmers combatting climate change. One of this main features was a discussion on farms growing their own crops for renewable diesel.

Now seems like a very good time to have another look at where we were over a decade ago (TIP: nowhere, but a promise of a bright future).

Miscanthus X

Here's the relevant part of the story:

...

Another big step to reducing emissions down on the farm is renewable fuel. The latest excitement is over Japanese grass Miscanthus x giganteus.

Planted as shelter belts in open farmland, Miscanthus grows to 2.5m in the first year and 4m when ready for harvesting after two. Baled and fed into small scale diesel processing plants, it is capable of producing 9,000 litres of fuel per hectare.

The fuel is a direct diesel substitute, or 'drop in fuel', that doesn't need to be blended with mineral fuel like bio diesel. According to Peter Brown of Miscanthus NZ it is compatible with manufacturers' engine warranties and is even slightly better than the stuff we get from the pumps, with higher cetane rating. It is also best harvested in winter, when the machinery needed is normally lying idle.

Brown expects to see investment in the next year here, with significant interest from farming groups. Price is attractive, at around $1.10 per litre and that can be guaranteed for a year ahead.

Clubbing together, local farmers could feed and use the 150 litres of renewable fuel a unit will pump out per hour. Steve Wratten sees this local focus as another encouraging move; “There’s not much sense in making renewable fuel and putting it in dirty great tankers.”

And making fuel could provide an interesting link to our past. Anders Crofoot, Wairarapa farmer and Vice President of Federated Farmers, cites a modern farm that is using 10% of it's area for fuel crop, almost exactly the same as it did in the days of horse power.

...

The original published article is here.

I have asked for an update - let's see where that goes ...

2015 - 2026