87 comments on The Man Who Wrote the Book on Algal Biodiesel
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Canola/Flax intercropped on summerfallow cultivated with electric farm equipment powered by hydroelectric for biodiesel. No nitrogen fertilizer required and Carrots love Tomatoes, Roses love Garlic and pests hate flax. Intercropping for food production is difficult, intercropping for fuel has potential to lower pesticide usage. Fallow with renewable electricity rather than NH3/urea from NG lowers fossil fuel usage in oilseed production. It looks like there is some research in linseed oil biodiesel.
Algae needs a lot more R&D and another decade of work and we should be concentrating on implementing lower fossil fuel farming methods and how to grow proven crops for diesel fuel without the high fertilizer, pesticide and diesel input.
I'm curious about your statement: "No nitrogen fertilizer required."
Could you explain, please?
That statement isn't exact, because whether it's stubble or summerfallow seeding, a starter blend is usually added with the seed (i.e. 11-55-00 ammonium phosphate) plus traces, but the bulk of additional nitrogen fertilizer can be eliminated on fallow land.
In a dark brown/black soil zone in Canada, like where our farm is and a lot of Canola is grown, generally you can grow an equivalent crop of cereal or oilseed on land that was fallowed the previous year compared to continuous cropping with 60-100+ lbs/acre of urea.
Legumes (i.e. soybeans) also don't require additional nitrogen fertilizer. An option to summerfallow in Canada is to rotate a legume like alfalfa.
Corn and feed wheat in continuous cropping low-till methods would be about the highest nitrogen requirement crops.
My dad would fallow about 1/3, but it is rarely done now for several reasons (diesel price, wind erosion, bank taking the farm if every acres isn't seeded, etc). One of the major issues with Canola is disease and although fallow acres are much less than ever, I would think if there is any fallow, more often than not Canola seeded in the next rotation.
Interesting. I'm not familiar with farming practices in that part of the world (you guys are up there!) but you figure you get the equivalent of 60-100+ lbs/acre of urea by leaving land fallow for a year? That's a lot of nitrogen.
Also, AFAIK, N fertilization of soybeans is still frequently recommended but, as you point out -- this may be largely dependent upon your particular crop rotation.
In the past (under hand management of crops) one planted corn and soybeans/pole beans together.
Might be something for the gardners to try.
If winter rains arrive Down Under I'm going to plant a small field of 'Tornado' variety canola on soil prepared with charcoal and small amounts of NPK (urea, phosphate, potash) and dolomite. Wide row spacing should help with bug control using a backpack spray.
However I'm swinging to the view we should use oily weeds for biodiesel, not food crops. Better still go the gasification route which unfortunately is in another league financially.
Robert Rapier: Thanks for that comment. My guess has always been, that this is just hot air.