Jamie Fisher is a Halton farmer who is searching for ways to keep his farm profitable and diversified. He was the guest speaker at the annual Halton Farm Tour held on Sept. 16th.
Fisher is a member of an organization of farmers called the Ontario Biomass Producers Group. Their mission is to promote the production and market of biomass as an alternative fuel.
Biomass can be either waste products such as old hay or corn stalks or it can be purpose grown such as switch grass. Most of us consider switch grass to be a weed but to Fisher it is a crop with great potential to solve our energy problems.
It is Fisher's opinion that biomass is a carbon neutral fuel in that carbon is removed from the air, is fixed in the plant and then released through burning. Carbon in - carbon out. This differs from burning fossil fuels whereby carbon that was fixed millions of years ago is released into the atmosphere.
The issue of food verses fuel was touched on but Fisher said that it is a very complicated subject and would take too long to fully explore.
It was interesting that the Ontario Biomass Producers Group is looking at how the Nanticoke Coal plant could be retooled to burn biomass after it stops buring coal. The coal plant is very inefficient as an electricity producer with 40% of its energy transferred into the water cooling system. In effect Lake Erie is being heated by coal.
The Biomass Producers hope to design a system that would be much more efficient from start to finish, or in other words from field to wire.
I think it is encouraging to find that people like Jamie are putting their minds and energy into solving some of our most pressing issues. This solution is interesting as it provides a use for waste products that can be sourced locally and used in far more efficient ways likely through co-generation technology.
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