Development company AgBioEn is running trial crops on the Katunga site of a former dairy farm, in preparation for its $2 billion project to turn agricultural waste into renewable energy and fuels.
AgBioen executive director Lubey Lozevski said the construction of the main plant had been delayed by COVID-19 due to key infrastructure partners in Spain and South Africa being hit by the pandemic.
He said early indications from the maize crop, grown on 40 ha with flood irrigation, were promising.
“The organic fertilisers have already improved soil yield, reduced water use and increased the amount of carbon captured in the soil — which is exactly what we hoped to achieve with these trials,” Mr Lozevski said.
“Importantly, the quality and amount of the agricultural waste also improved, which is vital for the next stage of the project.”
AgBioEn will now buy, lease or contract farms that will be part of a supply chain for growing food crops, such as maize, oaten hay, barley and wheat.
The grains will be sold as food, while the crop residue will be used to produce renewable energy and fuels at the Katunga facility.
La Trobe University researchers will analyse data from the trials, and three industry PhD students will work with AgBioEn over the next four years.
The three trial plots of maize have 16 soil sensors that measure soil moisture and temperature every half an hour.
The sensors transmit to a ‘gateway’ box in the corner of the paddock, which uploads the information, together with weather data, onto a computer cloud using the terrestrial communications network.
AGBioEn is working with La Trobe University on the crop trial, and soil microbial biologist Jen Woods said the crop had responded well to the poultry litter and compost applied to the topsoil.
“We've found the 20 cm of soil is in good condition due to the paddock's history and the amount of animal waste, but the sub-soil is clay-based,” Dr Wood said.
As a result of the unexpected good condition of the top soil and good rains this summer, the control area has also performed well.
Bio char (one of the expected outputs of the renewable energy facility) has been applied to the sub-soil.
The crop is expected to be harvested in the next few weeks, after which the data will be collated and the partners will examine the crop yield, water use and soil conditions.
