Brownfield grass may be answer for biomass

Feb 22 2010 by Karen Dent, The Journal

GREEN energy could soon be generated on a large scale from grass grown on contaminated former industrial sites, including the "wilderness" once famously walked by Margaret Thatcher.

The humble reed canary grass – a native British plant which grows well on poor soil – topped a five-year trial carried out by experts at Teesside University to find the most productive biomass plant growing on brownfield sites. It easily beat the mostly commonly used biomass plant – short rotation coppice willow – and miscanthus, a Chinese plant grown widely in southern England as a feedstock for biomass power stations and boilers for public buildings, such as schools.

Like its competitors, the reed canary grass is turned into pellets or bricks, which are burnt to generate energy without adding to greenhouse gases or global warming.

The team from the university’s Contaminated Land and Water Centre began the brownfield trials across the region in 2004, backed by a €1.2m grant from the EU’s LIFE-Environment research programme. Dr Richard Lord, from the BioReGen – Biomass, Remediation, re-Generation – project team, said: “We were surprised. The standard energy crop would probably be short rotation coppice willow but it was nothing like as productive. The other is miscanthus. It wasn’t anything like as productive as reed canary grass.

“There have been a number of trials using brownfield land of willow, with varying success. Brownfield sites can be very difficult to grow trees on because of the thin soil and this has worked really well on every site. It really is a very significant step.”

The team has carried out firing tests with reed canary grass at Eccles Hall power station in Staffordshire, which was the UK’s first dedicated biomass power station. It is also in talks with the operators of the Bio Energy Station, which is going through the planning process on Teesside.

One of the criticisms of growing biomass crops has been that it takes land out of the equation for food production, but using contaminated brownfield sites negates that argument.

Dr Lord said: “Often it is land belonging to local authorities or large industrial companies who have spare land, where we can get in and plant biomass plants for long-term production that won’t affect food production.”

Reed canary grass, which takes two years before it ready to harvest, was tested on sites, including the former Haverton Hill shipyard on the River Tees and part of the old Head Wrightson engineering site at the Tees Barrage, which was made famous by Margaret Thatcher’s “Walk in the Wilderness” 20 years ago.

Dr Lord said: “Tests have shown that reed canary grass produces a good, clean fuel without picking-up soil contamination. Our research also suggests that we get improved soil quality and biodiversity at the greened-up sites.”