By Ewan Pate, farming editor

MOST OF the excitement in recent months has revolved around liquid biofuels from arable crops such as wheat or oilseed rape.

Biomass, or fuel from woody plants, has been something of a Cinderella but it may yet come through as a strong contender.

News of a £100 million investment by Scottish Biofuels Ltd, a subsidiary of Scottish Coal, may be just the impetus that is needed to encourage plantings of the short-rotation willow coppice that will be the basis of the new industry.

Up to 10,000 hectares of the crop will be needed initially and along with forestry waste it will be used to fuel a new 40-megawatt combined power and heat plant now awaiting planning consent.

It will be built at Westfield, near Leslie, in Fife, on the site of what was once the largest open-cast coal mine in Europe.

Planting of willows is already under way, with a 500-hectare programme.

Bruce Laird, managing director of Scottish Biofuels, stressed the company’s commitment, saying, “We deliver four million tonnes of coal per year and we know the importance of fuel quality and reliable delivery and we will apply this to biomass.”

Les Mosco, who is charged with developing the Westfield site, said, “The new power station will be fed by wood chip but there will also be a wood pellet manufacturing plant on the site.

“This will produce a very uniform pellet which will be used to fuel smaller-scale community projects rated at 10 kilowatts up to 100 kilowatts.”

It transpires that Scottish Biofuels may well become involved in installing and running these smaller plants and then selling the heat and power produced.

Gleneagles Hotel is apparently to have a 1.25-megawatt plant and seven new Edinburgh schools are to have biomass boilers.

However, first there has to be supply of wood.

Westfield alone will require 600,000 tonnes of “wet wood” at 35% moisture content and a further plant to be built in Ayrshire will increase the demand to over one million tonnes annually.

Woodland tops and brash will be a source, as could be oilseed rape cake, a by-product of biodiesel production.

However, willow grown on contract will be the backbone.

This week one of the first farmers to commit to a 10-year contract was supervising the planting of a 10-hectare field.

Malcolm Norval, Tulligarth Farm, Clackmannan, has decided to diversify from livestock and cereals by using some of the set-aside land on the 200-hectare farm.

“This is a good enough field but it is quite heavy and does not have the best drainage,” he said.

“I thought it would be worth trying willows.

“I am amazed at the speed of planting. The ground has been ploughed and power harrowed following a clean-up herbicide and a leatherjacket spray. That has been all my involvement so far.”

Scottish Biofuels employs the contractors, who supply the machinery and labour. The operators feed long willow rods into the planter which cuts them into 20-centimetre pieces and inserts them into the ground in two double rows three metres apart

The rods are 60 centimetres apart up the row and after rolling in, the bare rods produce roots in a matter of days.

The seed stock is sourced in Denmark. Having been harvested last November the rods are stored and transported at minus five degrees centigrade.

Growth is certainly rapid, as shown on a visit to a 30-hectare nursery and variety trial at Vogrie, near Dalkeith.

Three-year old willows there will be harvested later this year and are already well over five metres tall.

After the first year the plantation is cut to ground level to encourage coppicing but apart from that there is only rabbit and deer protection to worry about. The actual harvesting is carried out by a self-propelled forage harvester blowing the wood chip into silage trailers.

The machine has to be at the top end of the power range and needs a £90,000 cutting and feeding attachment, which clearly puts it beyond the budget of prospective growers.

Mike Arthur, who trained as an engineer in the deep coal mines of South Wales and is now biomass development manager with Scottish Biofuels, said, “The whole operation from planting to harvesting every three years will be our responsibility.

“The contracts with farmers are guaranteed for 10 years and, uniquely for an agricultural commodity, the price will be index linked.

“The crop can be grown on set-aside, although if it is it will not qualify for the 45 euro per hectare EU energy crop payment which otherwise applies.

“The crop needs no buildings, machinery or labour, so costs are very low.”

Figures show gross margins of around £250 per hectare per year or, more accurately, £750 per hectare every three years after harvest.

Independent consultant Brian Simpson acknowledges the cash flow implications but believes they are not insuperable.

“This crop offers a big opportunity for grassland farmers with limited options apart from beef, sheep and dairy,” he said.

“Returns are not high, but a lot better than the negative ones which are all too common.

“There is a big chance to reduce the capital tied up in livestock and machinery.”

However, he is critical of a lack of government support for biomass and believes it has been all but forgotten in the new Rural Development Programme.

There is a Forestry Commission-managed energy crop grant scheme which pays £1000 per hectare towards planting costs, but Mr Simpson feels there is much more scope for research and development work involving bodies such as SAC.

With figures showing that energy production from biomass is three or four times more efficient than from biofuels derived from arable crops, he might be right.