Willow Harvesting Updates

by Justin Heavey and Armen R. Kemanian (Northeast Bioenergy Extension Blog) The harvest season for willow biomass crops in the northeast is progressing across multiple sites, utilizng new harvesting technology developed by NEWBio researchers at SUNY-ESF in cooperation with industrial partner New Holland Agriculture. Together these partners have developed a woody crops cutting header that can be equipped to the New Holland line of FR Forage Harvesters and Cruisers to cut and chip willow and other woody crops in a single pass. Harvesting began early this year in late August on a particularly wet site in northern New York where the Celtic Energy Farm cut about 90 acres of willow and delivered the biomass feedstock to ReEnergy’s Lyonsdale facility. Here the harvested willow chips were combined with forest residues and converted into renewable biopower (electricity). Waste heat (steam) from ReEnergy Lyonsdale is also sold to the nearby Burrows Paper Corporation, improving efficiency and economics for the ReEnergy facility.

After wet ground conditions began limiting access to the first site in northern NY, willow harvesting operations were moved to another nearby site in early November, where a SUNY-ESF yield trial was cut and measured using the New Holland system in combination with hand-operated brush saws used to harvest research plots. The biomass from the “buffer rows” separating research plots in this yield trial was harvested using the New Holland system and was provided for testing to a local stakeholder interested in heating with willow and potentially producing the feedstock. Yield trials like this have been established throughout the Northeast, Midwest, and across Canada to assess the ability of commercial willow cultivars to rapidly produce large amounts of biomass, while resisting pests and diseases, over a wide range of sites and environmental conditions. Several other yield trials like this will be harvested this season by SUNY-ESF, Cornell University and other NEWBio partners. Recently established trials include the newest cultivars developed by the willow feedstock improvement group of NEWBio, led by Cornell University.

The next stop for SUNY-ESF’s harvester was a former industrial site near Syracuse, NY now planted with shrub willow as an alternative vegetative cover. This project, a partnership between SUNY-ESF and Honeywell International, provides a more environmentally friendly and cost effective alternative to a traditional landfill cap, and a sustainable solution for this former industrial site.

The willow’s aboveground vegetation, fibrous root system and biological activity stabilize the soil and control the water budget of the site, preventing salts from entering the local watershed which could otherwise be harmful to local plants, wildlife and habitat. The planting also produces a useable biomass feedstock in the same fashion as shrub willow crops grown on agricultural or marginal land. The biomass from about 30 acres included in this year’s harvest (there is about 110 acres planted with willow at this site) will be used in support of related remediation activities being conducted by Honeywell at the site, but future harvests will be used as a fuel to generate renewable heat and power in the region. Next up for the SUNY-ESF harvester is another site in Syracuse of about 20 acres, and a possible collaboration with Canadian agricultural company AGRINIOVA, who is managing and collecting data on 50 acres of willow in Quebec, along with several acres of hybrid poplar coppice, another woody bioenergy crop that can be harvested with the New Holland system.

The shrub willow trial at Rockview occupies 34 acres on mildly eroded agricultural land owned by Penn State University in Centre Co, Pa, between Bellefonte and State College. The field is adjacent to Interstate-99 and highly visible for traffic arriving to State College from the east. The field was planted in May of 2012 with 12 strips of six commercial cultivars. The main goal of this project is to measure the exchange of carbon dioxide and water vapor continuously throughout the year and at 30 minute intervals using the "eddy covariance" method. In this method, sensors are placed several feet above the top of the willow canopy using a tower. The sensors measure the flux of carbon dioxide and water in a plane above the crop, thus recording net fluxes. For comparison, a twin set of sensors has been placed in an adjacent corn field. These measurements will provide an accurate estimate of the carbon storage in soil and plants in comparison with the neighboring corn crop, and will ultimately enable a more accurate estimate of the carbon benefits of this woody energy crop. The harvest will provide comparisons of yield between these six cultivars in a commercial-scale plantation. The shrub willow chips from this site will also be used for a remediation application and will be sold to a company specialized in producing environmental socks to mitigate pollution from construction sites. Despite some challenges during willow establishment, the plants look extremely vigorous now, and provide an appealing visual contrast to the surrounding cropland. The shrub willow plants are the first ones to green up in spring, and the last ones to drop the leaves in the fall. READ MORE