If Life Gives You Straw, Make Some Fuel

A massive quantity of surplus straw from crops such as wheat, barley, oats and oilseed rape is produced each year with little to use it for. Now, researchers suggest that this straw can be converted into second-generation biofuel, making harvests from golden fields even more useful.

A study published in Bioresource Technology, details how researchers at the Biorefinery Centre on the Norwich Research Park found that energy sources in tough straw can be exposed using a sort of "pressure cooking" of the biomass, where high intensity focused steam explosions can drive a number of chemical reactions in the straw.

According to the study, this finding, compounded with other past research into straw energy conversion, should help improve the efficiency by which straw is turned into biofeul making it a viable way to use of the surplus.

According to the Institute of Food Research (IFR), the United Kingdom alone produces around 12 million metric tons of straw. Only a portion of that is used for animal bedding, mushroom compost, or as fire fuel. This research suggests a new place where surplus straw can go, potentially making yields from agricultural harvest even more profitable.

However, the straw itself, even when treated for easy conversion, would still be needed to be collected in great quantities to produce adequate levels of fuel.

According to the Norwich researchers, there may be ways to tweak the straw itself while it's still growing. Oilseed rape in particular, the authors write, has shown promise in improved breeding, but little attention has been given to the straw of this crop.

Now the IFR reports that it is currently "working with colleagues at the University of York and the John Innes Centre to see whether there are ways of breeding more 'biofuel-ready' varieties of oilseed rape, with the same yields of oilseed but with more amenable straw."

The study was published in the June issue of Bioresource Technology.