Energy Crop Transformation

Miscanthus giganteus has been grown as a perennial biomass energy crop for over 20 years. After being planted only once it will, after three years development, begin to produce an annual harvest reaching a stable yield of c.12 tonnes of biomass per ha after c.year 5 and can add over 3 tonnes of CO2 per ha per annum to long term Soil Organic Carbon storage. It is named as a key contributor to the attainment of carbon neutrality by 2050 in the government's Carbon Reduction Strategy which has set an annual planting target of 30,000ha of perennial biomass crops per year up to 2050\. However, it's recent rate of take-up has been slowed due to the lack of other opportunities to exploit its annual biomass output beyond just burning for energy.

This project has the aim of transforming the status of Miscanthus Giganteus from an herbaceous perennial energy crop to a source of multiuse feedstock for a wide range of sectors such as packaging, food additives, and construction.

The project team will work with the University of York's Biorenewables Development Centre (BDC) to build on the industrial research already carried out by the project applicant Bash Farms Ltd (BFL). The object is to assess the potential for the development of an on farm value adding process to improve the profitability of Miscanthus through valorising several feedstocks derived from its biomass.

BFL has already identified several key process factors and the work with the BDC will focus on optimising their interrelationships. It is the intention to then factor these results into a techno economic assessment of the feasibility of establishing an on farm Miscanthus biomass processing plant and to scope out the impact of its operations on the sustainability, environmental impact, and carbon footprint of the whole farm.

BFL's M.D. & Project Leader Hugh Massingberd-Mundy commented "_We view this project as the first step on a journey of fundamental change for our farming business. We're very excited by the opportunity this initial study gives us to develop this process and to expand the range of opportunities it can give us and the wider farming community"_