Intact Harvester

January 13, 2009 · Filed Under Uncategorized 

These days it seems you can’t turn on the TV or read a newspaper without being confronted with yet another news item about the problem of climate change. Again and again we hear about how CO² levels are and average temperatures are rising, how the icecaps are melting, and how weather is becoming more extreme. We know it’s all caused by using gas and oil too fast, but the one thing we don’t hear a lot about is acceptable solutions. By acceptable, I mean ways that will not adversely effect our standard of living.

Until now, that is. What follows is a description of a new invention that will reduce our reliance on fossil fuels (and so help to address the problems of climate change) without using agricultural land to grow crops for fuel. Even more importantly this idea will go someway towards feeding the expected 8 billion world population in 2025 at the moment of Peak Food as biofuels can be produced without using the food portion of the crop.

The Intact Harvester
See diagram (intact harvester invention)

The diagram above shows a machine that would replace the combine harvester and after swathing or spraying with roundup to reduce moisture content, harvest cereals intact i.e. harvest the grain and the straw. The straw and grain would be sent together to local processing plants where they would both be processed. The straw (which often contains almost the same amount of energy as the grain) would be used to make electricity or cellulosic ethenol. In the case of oilseed rape, the seed would be crushed for vegetable oil and the residue used to feed livestock. For cereals, the grain would be used for food and any further drying required would use waste heat from the burning of the straw instead of oil.

Thus the advantage of this machine would be a far higher energy balance than present, as shown below:
See diagram (energy balance for intact harvesting)

See diagram (conventional harvester energy blanace)

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