Energy Crops
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Energy Crops
Energy crops are low-cost and low-maintenance crops grown solely for renewable bioenergy production (not for food). The crops are processed into Solid fuel, solid, liquid or gaseous fuels, such as Pellet fuel, pellets, bioethanol or biogas. The fuels are burned to generate electrical power or heat. The plants are generally categorized as Woody plant, woody or Herbaceous plant, herbaceous. Woody plants include Salix, willow and Populus, poplar, herbaceous plants include ''Miscanthus giganteus, Miscanthus x giganteus'' and ''Pennisetum purpureum'' (both known as elephant grass). Herbaceous crops, while physically smaller than trees, store roughly twice the amount of CO2 (in the form of carbon) below ground compared to woody crops. Through biotechnology, biotechnological procedures such as genetic modification, plants can be manipulated to create higher yields. Relatively high yields can also be realized with existing cultivars. However, some additional advantages such as reduce ...
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DEFRA Energy Crops Scheme Plantation - Geograph
DEFRA may refer to: * Deficit Reduction Act of 1984, United States law * Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, United Kingdom government department * ''List of Coptic place names#Gharbia Governorate, Defra'' (), an Egyptian town {{Disambiguation ...
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Cultivar
A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, micropropagation, tissue culture, or carefully controlled seed production. Most cultivars arise from deliberate human genetic engineering, manipulation, but some originate from wild plants that have distinctive characteristics. Cultivar names are chosen according to rules of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP), and not all cultivated plants qualify as cultivars. Horticulturists generally believe the word ''cultivar''''Cultivar'' () has two meanings, as explained in ''#Formal definition, Formal definition'': it is a classification category and a taxonomic unit within the category. When referring to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all plants t ...
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Silage
Silage is fodder made from green foliage crops which have been preserved by fermentation (food), fermentation to the point of souring. It is fed to cattle, sheep and other ruminants. The fermentation and storage process is called ''ensilage'', ''ensiling'', or ''silaging''. The exact methods vary, depending on available technology, local tradition and prevailing climate. Silage is usually made from grass crops including maize, sorghum or other cereals, using the entire green plant (not just the grain). Specific terms may be used for silage made from particular crops: ''oatlage'' for oats, ''haylage'' for alfalfa (''haylage'' may also refer to high dry matter silage made from hay). History Using the same technique as the process for making sauerkraut, green fodder was preserved for animals in parts of Germany since the start of the 19th century. This gained the attention of French agriculturist Auguste Goffart of Sologne, near Orléans. He published a book in 1877 which describ ...
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Melilotus Albus
''Melilotus albus'', known as honey clover, white melilot (UK), Bokhara clover (Australia), white sweetclover (US), and sweet clover, is a nitrogen-fixing legume in the family Fabaceae. ''Melilotus albus'' is considered a valuable honey plant and source of nectar and is often grown for forage. Its characteristic sweet odor, intensified by drying, is derived from coumarin. ''Melilotus albus'' is of Eurasian origin but can now be found throughout the subtropical to temperate zones, especially in North America, and is common in sand dune, prairie, bunchgrass, meadow, and riparian habitats. This species is listed as an "exotic pest" in Tennessee, "ecologically invasive" in Wisconsin, and a "weed" in Kentucky and Quebec. Description ''Melilotus albus'' is an annual or biennial legume that can reach in height.Joseph M. DiTomaso and Evelyn A. Healy, "Aquatic and Riparian Weeds of the West", California Weed Science Society, pp.211-213, 2003
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Millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most millets belong to the tribe Paniceae. Millets are important crops in the Semi-arid climate, semiarid tropics of Asia and Africa, especially in India, Mali, Nigeria, and Niger, with 97% of production in Developing country, developing countries. The crop is favoured for its Agricultural productivity, productivity and short growing season under hot dry conditions. The millets are sometimes understood to include the widely cultivated sorghum; apart from that, pearl millet is the most commonly cultivated of the millets. Finger millet, proso millet, and foxtail millet are other important crop species. Millets may have been consumed by humans for about 7,000 years and potentially had "a pivotal role in the rise of multi-crop agriculture and settled farming societies". Etymology The word ''millet'' is derived via Old French ''millet, ...
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Sudan Grass
Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the southeast, and South Sudan to the south. Sudan has a population of 50 million people as of 2024 and occupies 1,886,068 square kilometres (728,215 square miles), making it Africa's List of African countries by area, third-largest country by area and the third-largest by area in the Arab League. It was the largest country by area in Africa and the Arab League until the 2011 South Sudanese independence referendum, secession of South Sudan in 2011; since then both titles have been held by Algeria. Sudan's capital and most populous city is Khartoum. The area that is now Sudan witnessed the Khormusan ( 40000–16000 BC), Halfan culture ( 20500–17000 BC), Sebilian ( 13000–10000 BC), Qadan culture ( 15000–5000 BC), the war of Jebel ...
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Maize
Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native Americans planted it alongside beans and squashes in the Three Sisters polyculture. The leafy stalk of the plant gives rise to male inflorescences or tassels which produce pollen, and female inflorescences called ears. The ears yield grain, known as kernels or seeds. In modern commercial varieties, these are usually yellow or white; other varieties can be of many colors. Maize relies on humans for its propagation. Since the Columbian exchange, it has become a staple food in many parts of the world, with the total production of maize surpassing that of wheat and rice. Much maize is used for animal feed, whether as grain or as the whole plant, which can either be baled or made into the more palatable silage. Sugar-rich varieties called sw ...
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Wetland
A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially in the soils. Wetlands form a transitional zone between waterbodies and dry lands, and are different from other terrestrial or aquatic ecosystems due to their vegetation's roots having adapted to oxygen-poor waterlogged soils. They are considered among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as habitats to a wide range of aquatic and semi-aquatic plants and animals, with often improved water quality due to plant removal of excess nutrients such as nitrates and phosphorus. Wetlands exist on every continent, except Antarctica. The water in wetlands is either freshwater, brackish or saltwater. The main types of wetland are defined based on the dominant plants and the source of the water. For example, ''marshes'' ar ...
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Willow
Willows, also called sallows and osiers, of the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 350 species (plus numerous hybrids) of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions. Most species are known as willow, but some narrow-leaved shrub species are called osier, and some broader-leaved species are referred to as sallow (from Old English ''sealh'', related to the Latin word ''salix'', willow). Some willows (particularly arctic and alpine species) are low-growing or creeping shrubs; for example, the dwarf willow (''Salix herbacea'') rarely exceeds in height, though it spreads widely across the ground. Description Willows all have abundant watery bark sap, which is heavily charged with salicin, soft, usually pliant, tough wood, slender branches, and large, fibrous, often stoloniferous roots. The roots are remarkable for their toughness, size, and tenacity to live, and roots readily sprout from aerial parts of the plant. Lea ...
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Short Rotation Coppice
Short rotation coppice (SRC) is coppice grown as an energy crop. This woody solid biomass can be used in applications such as district heating, electric power generating stations, alone or in combination with other fuels. Currently, the leading countries in area planted for energy generation are Sweden and the UK. Species used SRC uses high yield varieties of poplar and willow. Typically willow species chosen are varieties of the common osier or basket willow, ''Salix viminalis''. Poplar is generally planted for visual variation rather than being a commercial crop, although some varieties can outperform willow on suitable sites. Species are selected for their acceptance of varying climate and soil conditions, relative insusceptibility to pests and diseases, ease of propagation and speed of vegetative growth. To combat pests such as brassy and blue willow beetles, as well as the fungal pathogen '' Melampsora'' (a rust), planting a carefully selected mix of varieties is reco ...
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Combined Heat And Power
Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to electricity generation, generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise-waste heat, wasted heat from electricity generation is put to some productive use. Combined heat and power (CHP) plants recover otherwise wasted thermal energy for HVAC#heating, heating. This is also called combined heat and power district heating. Small CHP plants are an example of Distributed generation, decentralized energy. By-product heat at moderate temperatures ( can also be used in absorption refrigerators for cooling. The supply of high-temperature heat first drives a gas turbine, gas or steam turbine-powered generator. The resulting low-temperature waste heat is then used for water or space heating. At smaller scales (typically below 1 MW), a gas engine or diesel engine may be used. Cogeneration is also common with geotherm ...
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Thermal Power Station
A thermal power station, also known as a thermal power plant, is a type of power station in which the heat energy generated from various fuel sources (e.g., coal, natural gas, nuclear fuel, etc.) is converted to electrical energy. The heat from the source is converted into mechanical energy using a thermodynamic power cycle (such as a Diesel cycle, Rankine cycle, Brayton cycle, etc.). The most common cycle involves a working fluid (often water) heated and boiled under high pressure in a pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam. This high pressure-steam is then directed to a turbine, where it rotates the turbine's blades. The rotating turbine is mechanically connected to an electric generator which converts rotary motion into electricity. Fuels such as natural gas or oil can also be burnt directly in gas turbines ( internal combustion), skipping the steam generation step. These plants can be of the open cycle or the more efficient combined cycle type. The majorit ...
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