Sugar beet for AD

noworries2004

Hi

What tonnage are people seeing with Sugar beet this year?
Has anyone sent away their sugar beet for AD yet?

DMAXMAN

know of one guy who reckons he got 38 tons/acre. he would be genuine and farming heavy ground. saw the beet myself and it was massive. it was sugar beet. pulled some myself that suffered badly from drought and reckon it pulled about 25 tons

darragh_haven

Did that thing of sending beet up to Derry ever happen. I'm involved in AD but I don't know did this ever take off.

20silkcut

darragh_haven wrote: »

Did that thing of sending beet up to Derry ever happen. I'm involved in AD but I don't know did this ever take off.

There is a concerted intensive effort to make sure alternative forms of energy do not take off in this country.

noworries2004

Yes there was beet sent to Derry last year and it is going ahead this year again.
This is mainly sourced and shipped from Cork.
Last year Fodder beet was the choice but this year it is concentrated on Sugar beet due to the higher DM.

"There is a concerted intensive effort to make sure alternative forms of energy do not take off in this country. "
What do you mean by the above quote?

bob charles

And why not load the boat in France where beet can be grown much cheaper and dropped on dock in the north much cheaper. increased tarriffs for Irish grown stuff. How much diesel is being wasted to make this energy

slippy wicket

bob charles wrote: »

And why not load the boat in France where beet can be grown much cheaper and dropped on dock in the north much cheaper. increased tarriffs for Irish grown stuff. How much diesel is being wasted to make this energy

Don't be putting them down, they were robbed don't you know.

freedominacup

bob charles wrote: »

And why not load the boat in France where beet can be grown much cheaper and dropped on dock in the north much cheaper. increased tarriffs for Irish grown stuff. How much diesel is being wasted to make this energy

What is AD?

And how many litres of crude oil net does an acre of sugar beet replace?

i.e. When all of the hydrocarbons used to grow the acre (fertilizers, sprays, fuel for machinery, wearing parts on machinery etc) are netted out what is the net amount of oil produced?

20silkcut

noworries2004 wrote: »

Yes there was beet sent to Derry last year and it is going ahead this year again.
This is mainly sourced and shipped from Cork.
Last year Fodder beet was the choice but this year it is concentrated on Sugar beet due to the higher DM.

"There is a concerted intensive effort to make sure alternative forms of energy do not take off in this country. "
What do you mean by the above quote?

Try and set up a waste to energy plant in this country and you will know a barrage of red tape and regulation despite the fact it is fairly mature technology and standard enough in other countries.
AD plants are fairly well proliferated throughout continental Europe yet are non existent in this country. And they don't just use beet they can use silage as well which grows fairly well in this country.

Yet amazingly big massive ugly invasive windmills are going up everywhere?
Bord gais,airtricity,esb etc have the ****e lobbied out of the govt ensuring their interests are protected and their big expensive windmills get put up everywhere. AD plants and waste to energy plants can be set up and supplied by medium sized and smaller investors far outside the control and in direct competion with the big energy companies. That's not good for them hence it is in their interests to make sure such energy plants do not happen and so far they have done a good job on this.

noworries2004

AD = anerobic digestion - Convert sugar beet gas to electricity

freedominacup

noworries2004 wrote: »

AD = anerobic digestion - Convert sugar beet gas to electricity

I picked that up from post 9. What's the answer to the net yield question. AD's have a place when dealing with waste material but I fail to see the figures stacking up for using good quality raw materials for this process. A system that harvested beet tops for AD now that would be an interesting project.

TheClubMan

A neighbour of mine got 21 tonnes to the acre there last week!

darragh_haven

freedominacup wrote: »

I picked that up from post 9. What's the answer to the net yield question. AD's have a place when dealing with waste material but I fail to see the figures stacking up for using good quality raw materials for this process. A system that harvested beet tops for AD now that would be an interesting project.

I agree wit you regarding putting good quality raw material into AD plants. It does really make sense. And in the Republic of Ireland, is nowhere near viable. But when you cross over to using waste streams it becomes a minefield of red tape, pasturisation, waste licences, disposal methods etc.

Harrier1980

bob charles wrote: »

And why not load the boat in France where beet can be grown much cheaper and dropped on dock in the north much cheaper. increased tarriffs for Irish grown stuff. How much diesel is being wasted to make this energy

This is the best point made so far this thread! It is not possible to build a business model on nostalgia

20silkcut

Harrier1980 wrote: »

This is the best point made so far this thread! It is not possible to build a business model on nostalgia

Could you expand that?

20silkcut

Harrier1980 wrote: »

This is the best point made so far this thread! It is not possible to build a business model on nostalgia

What is nostalgic about energy production?