SRF/SRC at Teagasc

John Finnan

SRF/SRC Teagasc

• Work on this subject commenced in the early-mid 1970s after the first oil crisis

• Initial objective was to identify species which could be harvested at regular intervals

SRF/SRC in Teagasc

• Species trials on low grade agricultural land

• Species trials on peatland

• Agronomy of SRF

• SRF Recovery after harvesting

• Fuel properties –various SRF species

• Storage and Drying of SRF in chip and Whole Stem form

SRF/SRC- Teagasc

SRF/SRC at Teagasc

AFT WILLOW TRIALS

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s 1st Harvest

2nd Harvest

3rd Harvest

4th Harvest

Land Limitations

• Poor Agricultural Land (blanket bogs, gley soils)

• Pinus spp proved to be the best performer on these soils

• The performance of broadleaved species was unsatisfactory at most sites

• Betula survived at many locations but gave an unenonomic yield

Trials on Harvested Peatland• Reasonable yields only obtained where

there was at least 0.5m of peat remaining. Very poor yields obtained when plants were sown directly into calcareous marl

• Salix and Populus proved to be the most promising species generally although there was considerable variation among species.

Fuel Properties

Species Bulk Density

(kg/m3)

Fixed Carbon %

Volatiles % Ash %

Fraxinus 224 11.5 87.4 1.1

Populus (F.P)

238 7.8 91.1 1.1

Populus (rap)

220 9.3 89.9 0.8

Salix aquatica

202 10.3 88.8 1.0

Salix dasyclados

231 8.8 89.7 1.7

Salix viminalis

215 9.7 89.3 1.0

SRF Drying Chip&Stems

More Recently

• Low Cost Willow Chip Drying

Willow Variety Trials

Bioremediation

• Measuring nutrient and heavy metal losses to groundwater and surface water

• Stimulus funded project just finished

• Interreg funded project starting with AFBI

Combustion Studies

• With both pelleted material and chipped material