New Holland Agriculture Expands Offerings for Biomass Harvest and Handling

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August 3, 2015

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(Extension.org) Renewable energy production options are growing thanks to expanded farm equipment capabilities for harvesting biofuel feedstocks like shrub willow. — Harvesting is the single most expensive operation in the production of shrub willow biomass, accounting for about 30% of costs over the life cycle of the crop (20-plus years). In the past, willow harvesting operations typically encountered problems with equipment durability, chip size, and other technical details.

So when John Posselius, innovation engineering director for New Holland Agriculture, learned that willow grown for bioenergy was being harvested with forage harvesters, he knew that his company could offer a solution. New Holland Agriculture has been building commercial self-propelled harvesters for corn, sugar cane, and other commodity crops since the 1970s.

The company has 120 years of experience developing and manufacturing agricultural equipment. Increasingly, it is focusing that expertise on renewable energy. In 2006, the company established a Clean Energy Leader strategy to promote renewable fuels, emissions reductions, and sustainable agricultural technology.

Posselius and his team helped develop a single-pass cut-and-chip harvesting system for woody bioenergy crops like shrub willow and hybrid poplar for use primarily in the Northeast but which is now sold worldwide. The system was developed in collaboration with NEWBio researchers at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF) and others, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy and the New York State Research and Development Authority.

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In addition to shrub willow, New Holland participates in studies of other renewable energy crops and the equipment to produce and harvest them. The company’s innovation team has been working with biomass crops such as eucalyptus in South Florida and Brazil, and poplar in Europe and in the Northwest, where it is also used for pulp. It has worked with Iowa State University and Penn State University on miscanthus, and with Penn State on corn stover. Both of these crops hold great potential as bioenergy feedstocks in the Northeast. READ MORE and MORE or watch a video

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