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Prof Fired Up About Burning Weeds, Wildflowers for Power |
| By
Deanna Lytle |
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Aug 31, 2003 |
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| Dr. James Kamm carried an armload of goldenrod last fall. The bulky stalks were sampled for energy-producing capabilities before the field was harvested. |
You see them now in ditches on the side of the road or off the path at the local park. But when you see wildflowers, you don’t immediately think energy. Unless you’re Dr. James Kamm, that is.
For Kamm, the inspiration for burning native plants for energy was found in a ditch. “About 10 years ago, I was burning some ditch banks on my farm late in the year. I noticed that some of the weeds were very dry and stalky and that they generated a lot of heat as they burned,” he said. That sparked his curiosity, and ever since Kamm has been dedicated to researching the biomass capabilities of plants.
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| goldenrod in bloom |
Kamm, a professor of engineering technology, has identified several types of native plants that are ideal to use for generating energy. Called “woody stalked plants,” they are mostly wildflowers, including goldenrod, New England aster, horseweed and wild sunflower. All of these plants are varieties that grow in Ohio and other states. The plants have a high yield, about 10 tons per acre, making them efficient to grow. They also are good fuel, according to Kamm, due to their woody xylem/phloem layer. These outer rings of the stalk contain a high percentage of energy-yielding tissue that is not found in other plants.
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| New England aster |
After discovering which varieties of plants were best to use, Kamm took his work a step further last fall. With a grant from the Ohio Biomass Energy Program, he harvested and converted several acres of the plants to fuel to demonstrate their energy-producing capabilities.
The process began with finding sites where the woody stalked plants grew. “We ended up working with fields in western Lucas County and eastern Fulton County,” Kamm said. After waiting for the plants to dry and die down, he harvested them around Thanksgiving. “The important thing is that we harvested them with conventional equipment,” he said. “We didn’t need any special tools or machinery.”
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| horseweed |
The harvested plants were then put through a chipper and transported to an electrical generating plant at Hardwoods of Michigan in Clinton, Mich. The plant is powered by chips and bark from the logs it processes, making its biomass boiler perfect to test Kamm’s plants. After some difficulties with moving the chopped plants to the combustion chamber, the plants were fired to make steam for the turbine, proving that they could indeed create energy.
Kamm believes that his biomass research has benefits for commercial industries. “You could possibly burn the plants with other fuels, such as coal,” he said. “Since plants create no pollution, this could help companies generate energy and meet EPA regulations for emissions.” He also thinks that crops of woody stalked plants would be lucrative for farmers. “They can provide farmers with a net income of about $125 per acre,” he said. “And since many of the woody stalked plants have different growing seasons, farmers could be harvesting and planting throughout the season. It wouldn’t be all at once.”
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| wild sunflower |
Kamm is hoping to build on what he has learned and finance another stage in his research. He wants to develop a rural test site to cultivate the crop and generate seeds for the plants. “We need this to look more closely at the economic feasibility of energy crops,” he said.
But whatever the future holds, Kamm said he is excited about the possibilities of biomass. “Once I got involved, I was amazed how far research has come to creating a legitimate biomass fuel,” he said. “I hope Ohio gets behind this effort.”
For more information on his studies or to receive a newsletter, e-mail Kamm at jkamm@utnet.utoledo.edu.
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