Iowa State Developing Stover Harvester

A dual-stream, single-pass harvesting system to harvest corn and corn stover in two seperate streams is being developed by Stuart Birrell, an Iowa State associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, and graduate students Mark Dilts and Ben Schlesser. They're working to design, build and test machinery that will harvest corn stover -- the stalks, cobs and leaves -- when farmers bring in their grain. The stover could be the source of plant fiber that feeds the next generation of ethanol plants.

The researchers ran their latest version of a stover harvester through about 50 acres of corn near Ames this fall. The harvester dumps a crop of corn kernels into the combine's hopper and blows a crop of stalks, cobs and leaves into a trailing wagon.

The researchers are developing stover attachments that can be used on standard combines. The result would be an additional cost to farmers of about $10,000 to $15,000 instead of the six figures it would take for a separate combine to harvest stover. The attachments also allows farmers to harvest grain and stover with one pass through a field.

The system the researchers have come up with includes a modified row crop header and corn reel attached to the front of the combine and a chopper and blower attached to the back.

The header and reel feed leaves and stalks into the combine so the biomass can be harvested before it touches the ground and is contaminated with soil. The chopper cuts stover into 2-inch pieces. And the blower throws the chopped stover into a wagon.

Although tests with the prototype machine have been successful, Birrell said there is more development work to do:

* Increase harvest speed so that it can collect more stover. The machine can currently collect only 50% of the stover at normal grain harvesting speeds.
* Find a way to economically transport the harvested stover. Stover comes off the combine at a density of about 3 to 4 pounds per cubic foot; it needs to be about 10 to 12 pounds per cubic foot for efficient trucking.
* Find a way to store the stover. DOE has estimated a biorefinery would need at least 2,000 tons of biomass per day. A year's supply would cover 100 acres with 25 feet of biomass.
* Determine how much stover can be removed from fields and still return sufficent organic matter to soil for fertility and erosion control.

Birrell's stover harvesting research has been supported by a three-year, $180,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Energy and a two-year, $50,000 grant from Deere & Company of Moline, Ill.

Birrell said development of a stover harvesting system has been constrained by a lack of research funding.

"Significant resources have been dedicated to the process of converting cellulose into ethanol," he said. "But very little has gone into answering how do you get a supply of stover from the field to the biorefinery. This will be critical to the success of the bioeconomy."

Adapted from Iowa State University press release.

Comments

[fwhallberg]

This is the very first instance of a working corn stover harvester I have seen, I am gratified that the work has progressed this far, even though as the researchers say, more needs to be done. I am surprised John Deere is only supporting the project to the tune of $50,000. It stands to make millions on the equipment if and when it is perfected.

[Engineer-Poet]

The Corn stover collection project (site webserver appears to be down) managed this quite a few years ago, but did a separate collecting pass.  It would be best to have a machine to make high-density bales in the same pass as the grain harvest.

[PO'd Patriot]

Now if we can get out from under the ethanol lobby and use our biomass to make a fuel we can just pour in our current, unmodified cars and GO (Butanol! www.butanol.com) we'll be getting somewhere.

Oh, did I mention there's no special handling needed with butanol - You can use the existing storage and pipeline infrastructure? I guess I just did.

[Engineer-Poet]

That won't get us where we need to go; there isn't enough biomass to replace gasoline with butanol any more than ethanol.  The job will require replacement of the transport energy system from the production end to just short of the wheels.

[amazingdrx]

We agree on that poet. Fuel farming powering internal combustion engines just won't do it. It's physically impossible to produce even 10% of present fuel use from fuel farming. Not enough land.

But if we reduce fuel use to 10% of present levels with plugin serial hybrid powered transportation.

Then biodiesel from solar collector grown algae will provide that greatly reduced amount of liquid fuel.

Oil, coal, and tar sands can be turned into natural gas underground with no mining or refining to provide backup fuel for hundreds of years.

Main baseload power from wind and water power, solar power, and distributed backup storage and generation using fuel cells running on biogas or that natural gas backup source.

It's all doable right now. And much cheaper than the present system. 75 cents per "gallon" to run your electric car. Free heat and electricity for those with solar homes. Revenue from the power company for consumers who plugin their vehicles to act as generation and storage capacity for the grid.

Where does the extra money consumers save/earn go? Right back into the economy. Renewable energy. A huge growth engine.

[auntiegrav]

The idea that you can harvest all that biomass with only the minimum fodder for the soil organisms rests on the fact that chemical farming has killed the main soil organisms already, so that the stuff being grown has no value to living beings except to burn it to drive the combine that harvests it.

Most of the people driving around now aren't going anywhere useful anyway, so it should be no great stretch to cut fuel use by 90% in the near future. When you subtract all the jobs where people are driving to work so they can afford to drive to work, and simply get them to stay home...well....

[Design66]

Acccording to KMW-Energy in Canada, worldwide biomass is the 4th largest energy resource after coal, oil and natural gas.
According to 2. Keith Collins (Chief Economist, USDA), “U.S. Agriculture and the Emerging Bioeconomy” presentation at “Advancing Renewable Energy: An American Rural Renaissance,” sponsored by USDA and DOE, America’s Center in St. Louis, Missouri, October 10-12, 2006 -- the US is planting 90 million acres of corn in 2007, maybe harvest 125-145 bu/acre, and an equal weight of stover. If we were to convert the stover to a liquid fuel (e.g. ethanol or pentane) at only 35%, we could generate 27 billion gal of fuel, from corn stover alone. Add to that biomass waste (??) from all other agri harvests (3x more?) plus forestry wastes (2x more?) and we would generate 6x27-162 billion gal/y of fuel, which is comparable to the 141 billion gal/y now consumed in the US.
I was delighted to read about Iowa State's dual harvester -- more power to that group!

[ティファニー 激安]

tiffany & coスウォッチ グループ ジャパンはこのほど、東京?銀座のニコラス?G?ハイエック センター内に「ティファニー ウォッチ ショールーム」をオープンした。男性向けの「アトラス ジェント スクエア クロノグラフ」、女性向けの「ティファニー ジェメア」をはじめ、希少性の高いアイテムも展示、販売される。Tiffany Rings
国内初のティファニー ウォッチ専門店となる同ショールームには、新作ウォッチがいち早く店頭に並ぶだけでなく、さまざまなフェアやイベントも開催される予定となっている。時計の専門知識を持つスタッフにより、利用客の要望にもきめ細かく対応するという。ティファニー 激安
同ショールームでも販売される「アトラス ジェント スクエア クロノグラフ」は、最高のムーブメントとして広く認められるフレデリック?ピゲ製自動巻キャリバー1285を搭載。さらに頑丈な40mmのステンレス スティール ケースとスポーティなデザインにより、毅然とした男の魅力を演出している。Tiffany ネックレス
「ティファニー ジェメア」は、18カラットのホワイトゴールドで作られた樽型のケースが特徴で、たくさんのダイヤモンドを散りばめた宝飾時計に仕上がっている。ダイヤモンド1列のモデルとダイヤモンド2列のモデルのほかに、時計の表面に610個のダイヤモンド(3.12カラット)を敷き詰めたフルパヴェのモデルも用意。Tiffany locksこれらの3モデルを、直径22mm / 18mmの2パターンで展開する。ティファニー
その他、ショールームのオープンを記念し、日本初登場となる「ステートメント ウォッチ」「5thアヴェニュー ウォッチ」なども特別展示されるティファニー。
アメリカを代表する世界のプレミア?ジュエラー、ティファニーは1837年の創設以来、時を越えて多くの人々を魅了してきた。ティファニーのジュエリー、シルバー、ウォッチ、そのデザインの数々は何世代にもわたって世界中で愛され続けている。ティファニー 通販

[RMT]

RMT

[生薬]

生薬

[アバクロ]

アバクロ

[マークバイマークジェイコブス]

樽型のケースが特徴で、たくさんのダイヤモンドを散りばめた宝飾時計に仕上がっている。ダイヤモンド

[モンクレール]

The researchers ran their latest version of a stover harvester through about 50 acres of corn near Ames this fall. The harvester dumps a crop of corn kernels into the combine's hopper and blows a crop of stalks, cobs and leaves into a trailing wagon.

[アバクロ]

ケースが特徴で、たくさんのダイヤモンドを散りばめた宝飾時計に仕上がっている。ダイ

[Andre Such]

I am just leaning about this topic. Nice article!

[レディースブーツ]

near Ames this fall. The harvester dumps a crop of corn kernels into the