BIO-VALUE SPIR
Strategic platform for innovation and research on value-added products from biomass
SME – Final project report
SME Project titleOptimisation of biomass production system for increased ressource efficiency and sustained fertility of the agricultural areas. (In Danish:Optimering af biomassedyrknings-system til forbedring af ressource-effektiviteten og opretholdelse af jordens langsigtede frugtbarhed.) / Project leader
Thorkild Frandsen, AgroTech
Project objective
The main purpose of the project was to develop and test a new method for establishment of sugar cane, sorghum and giant miscanthus. The method is based on stem propagation using the Ellepot system, in which paper pots are used for production of seedlings in nurseries. When the seedlings are robust they are taken from the nursery to the field and planted using machines.
If the tests of the Ellepot system show good results it will give new market opportunities for Ellegaard. Brazil accounts for approximately 40 % of the world´s sugar cane production. More than 9.5 million hectares are dedicated to sugar cane plantations in this country alone. Every year new sugar cane plants are established on 20 % of this area. If the Ellepot system is introduced and accepted as an alternative methodfor reestablishment of sugar cane plantationsthere is a great potential for increased export of Ellegaard machines and paper to make the Ellepots in Brazil. If the Ellepot system is applied for 5 % of the area of sugar plantations it is expected that the annual turnover of Ellegaard will double and it will create 10 -15 new jobs.
This SME-project relates to the objective of Bio-Value Project 1: To optimize land management, logistics, biomass harvesting and storage.
Project results (min. 500 words)
A report summarizing the results from the experiments undertaken by University of Copenhagen is included as Appendix 1. The main conclusions for each of the three species are listed below.
Sugar cane: It was possible to reach the target of 85 % sprouting after 31 days even in the small pots. In experiment 1 sprouting percentages between 51 and 66 % were achieved after 31 days. In experiment 2 sprouting percentages between 95 – 100 % were achieved. The experiments demonstrated the importance of using fragments from freshly cut stems.
Sorghum: The target of 85 % sprouting was not reached for sorghum. It is concluded from the experiments that mother plants need to be older than 27 days. The stem may need to be of a certain diameter and buds more developed. More experiments with sorghum are needed.
Miscanthus: Acceptable sprouting percentages were achieved (38 – 97 %). However, it was observed that after 3 weeks growth ceased for many plants and the root development was relatively poor. As for sorghum it is concluded, that the age of the mother plants is very important. Further studies are needed to investigate whether the use of growth hormones could lead to better rooting of the seedlings.
The experiments with Ellepot show that this pot type is superior to plastic pots when producing seedlings, simply because the paper pot offers protection to the root of the seedling. In all experiments, several seedlings grown in plastic pots had severe root damages when removing the pot from the root. Some of the plants broke at the plant base. Especially in sorghum and giant miscanthus experiments, as the seedlings were poorly rooted. In the sugar cane experiments, breakage of stems or root damage would have caused higher failure at plant out and possibly, greater transplant shock.
In general, the experiments of University of Copenhagen with these three species have given Ellegaard considerable experience and knowledge on the prospects of stem propagation. However, more research is needed. It is believed that the obtained results are valuable for growers using stem propagation.
A study tour to Brazil was undertaken as part of the project. The purpose of the study tour was to examine the market opportunities for the Ellepot system and to create valuable contacts to potential customers and cooperation partners. Bjarne Pedersen from Ellegaard was satisfied with the results from the study tour: “The study tour to Brazil gave us valuable knowledge for the ongoing work with development of our business idea. We succeeded in establishing contact with a certain Brazilian customer, who we wanted to start dialogue with for a long time”.
In the table below the milestones from the project application are listed and a short status for each milestone is given.
Milestones / Status and results
Planning and preparation of first experiments. / Planning completed and the design for the first experiments is established.
Acquirement of plant material and transport to Denmark. / Sugar canes to be used for the first experiment were received in Denmark. Even though transport time was longer than expected it was still possible to identify sufficient plant material to undertake the planned experiments.
Implementation of first series of experiments. / First series of experiments with all three species have been completed and results reported in the report University of Copenhagen (see Appendix 1).
Field study to Brazil. / Field study completed with two participants from University of Copenhagen, two participants from National Innovation Center, and one participant from Ellegaard.
Implementation of second series of experiments. / Second series of experiments with all three species have been completed and results reported in the report from University of Copenhagen (see Appendix 1).
Administration and reporting. / The final project report is submitted to the BIO-VALUE Secretariat. Request for final payment will be sent to the BIO-VALUE Secretariat when the final project report is approved.
Industrial and societal results (min.200 words)
The main interest for Ellegaard was the propagation functionality for sugar cane and the sprouting percentages in the 2nd trial were well above the success criteria of 85%. The project did not provide a finalized production manual for sugar cane propagation but it gave some very useful indications.
The feasibility in propagation is vital and the key economic factor is the size of the Ellepot needed for successful propagation. The smallest size Ellepot proposed was a 35mm diameter and this is economically sound for sugar cane propagators.
For Ellegaard the project provided very useful information on three main issues:
- Cutting chips down to a diameter 20mm does provide sprouting, even though the survival afterwards was poor. Ellegaard believes this is only a matter of hormonal and nutritional treatment.
- The cane raw material need to be freshly cut but it can be stored at 5° C for almost two weeks and still provide near to acceptable establishing rates.
- Ellepot is once again confirmed to hold an advantage against plastic containers, tubes or trays. This is vital for the customer choice of which system to use.
The major challenge in sugar cane is the logistics and this is not different for the new system. The number of plants for propagation is huge and production of so many young plants and plant out is a major challenge for any propagator.
Companies developing new varieties of sugar cane could be the initial users of this propagation system. Today’s propagation of new variety clones using tissue culture is more expensive and time consuming. Using the Ellepot chip system can provide a faster way to propagate new variety clones for the commercial market.
Cloning sugar cane plants depends on using a healthy and disease free raw material. This is easier to control in an intensive nursery production system. This is another advantage for the chip system compared to present day propagation system used worldwide.
The report from University of Copenhagen will be used by Ellegaard for marketing purposes. Ellegaard will use the results to inspire customers to test the Ellepot system. Selling the Ellepot system is usually a long process including initial testing before the customer decides to buy. The Ellepot chip system for cane propagation is a big change for the growers and more testing than usual is expected.
The fact that Ellepot chip system does work for sorghum and some varieties of miscanthus is interesting and useful information for Ellegaard. It could expand business opportunities using the Ellepot system in new applications. Especially miscanthus which is grown in many regions around the globe constitutes an interesting opportunity.
Accounts
The overall accounts for the SME-project are presented in the table below. More details are included in Appendix 2.
Project partner / Budget / Total costs declared / Bio-Value contribution / Partner co-financing
Københavns Universitet / 540.000 / 546.012 / 540.000 / 6.012
National Innovation Center / 130.000 / 134.525 / 130.000 / 4.525
AgroTech / 90.000 / 92.135 / 90.000 / 2.135
Ellegaard A/S / 760.000 / 763.770 / 0 / 763.770
Total / 1.520.000 / 1.536.442 / 760.000 / 776.442
It is seen that the co-financing from the SME-partner Ellegaard constitutes a little more than 50 % of the financial contribution from Bio-Value.The project leader, Thorkild Frandsen, has signed versions of financial statements from all partners covering the total project period. A copy of these statements can be sent to the BIO-VALUE Secretariat if needed.
Public dissemination of results
Bjarne Pedersen from Ellegaard presented the project and the first results on the BIO-VALUE Annual Meeting at University of Aarhus in September 2014.
The final results from the project were presented by Thorkild Frandsen (AgroTech) at the BIO-VALUE Annual Meeting in September 2015 in Copenhagen.
A video presenting the project and the main results has been made and published via YouTube. It can be seen using this link:
An introduction to the project has been posted on the website of Bio-Value. Link to introduction.
Finally, University of Copenhagen is considering writing a manuscript to a scientific journal describing some of their experiments and results with stem propagation and production of sugar cane, sorghum and giant miscanthus seedlings in Ellepot.
Collaboration (min. 200 words)
The project partners´ participationin the two BIO-VALUE Annual Meetings resulted in new contacts to researchers and industrial partners of the BIO-VALUE Consortium. For instance, a link was created to Borregaard Bioplant during the Annual Meeting in Copenhagen and in November 2015 discussions are going on to find out whether there is a potential for collaboration with Ellegaard.
All in all, however, the collaboration between this SME project and the BIO-VALUE platform has not been comprehensive. The project has focussed on undertaking the planned activities and on meeting the project objectives as described in the project application. No special attention has been paid to develop a close collaboration with the BIO-VALUE platform since it has not been considered an objective in itself. Maybe this is due to the fact that this SME-project is the first one approved under the BIO-VALUE SPIR SME-platform.
Generally speaking, cooperating with universities about development of the Ellepot system through research activities is interesting for Ellegaard and will continue. Getting funds for this kind of research activities is however very time consuming and getting approval of applications is difficult becauseEllegaard is an exporting company. From the Ellegaard perspective it seems that most funding is focused on Danish activities. Ellegaard is present in more than 90 countries in the world today and most plant cultures with high potential are not grown in Denmark.
Project spin-off (min. 100 words)
One of the major players in the Brazilian Sugar Cane industry is currently testing the new propagation system using Ellepot. The contact was established during the fieldtrip in the beginning of the project. The results from the project will be presented to them and together with their own testing Ellegaard expects a positive development in future business with this company.
Based on the cooperation in the present SME-project a new project application was developed and submitted in December 2014. The Title of the project application was “Biomaterials for sprouting and rooting of plants” and project partners included Ellegaard, University of Copenhagen, FORCE Technology, Pindstrup Mosebrug and IMCD. 446,000 DKK was applied from the Innovation network for Biomass (INBIOM) but funding was not achieved.
Project challenges
Sugar canes from Brazil were necessary to undertake the experiments at University of Copenhagen. However, it was more difficult than expected to get the permission to export the plant material. It delayed the sending of sugar canes and consequently the quality of the plant material was not optimal. Still, it was possible to identify sufficient plant material to undertake the planned experiments.
It is concluded from this experience that there can be barriers for sending plant material between countries even though the Danish project partners had good contacts in Brazil in advance.
Another lesson learned from the project was that budgets related to especially implementation of experiments need to be developed with great care. In this case the budgets for performing trials in the green houses of University of Copenhagen underestimated the real costs. Part of the reason for the underestimation of costs is that the project application was developed under great time pressure so there was not sufficient time for all involved partners to evaluate and comment on the budgets. This challenge can be met by starting the project application early enough to allow for a proper assessment of the budget when compared to the planned activities.
Appendix 1 – Results from experiments of University of Copenhagen
Project results
Experiments were carried out from March 2014 till February 2015. The main aim was to investigate whether sugar cane, sorghum and giant miscanthus could be effectively stem propagated in Ellepot. Specifically:
- Can we use stem fragments, which are so small that it can be economically feasible to propagate them in Ellepot (or other pot systems)?
- Will it affect growth and development of seedlings if the stem fragments are placed horizontally or vertically (not relevant for sorghum, as these stem fragments can only be planted vertically in Ellepot)?
- How will a change in the climate conditions affect sprouting and growth of the seedlings?
While waiting for sorghum seeds and sugar cane stems from Brazil, we decided to include giant miscanthus in our trials, as this species has similar propagation challenges. If stem propagation using small stem fragments turned out to be possible, it would be of high interest to Ellegaard.
Experimental design and results are briefly presented on the following pages, separately for each species.
Sugar cane
Materials and methods. We received 12 months old stems of sugar cane (variety: SP832847) from Brazil in May 2014 with help from our Brazilian contact Kléber Pereira Lanças (FCA/UNESP-Botucatu/SP, NEMPA - Núcleo de Ensaio de Máquinas e Pneus Agroflorestais, Brasil). The transportation time had been long, 12 days. Usually, it is not recommended to use stems that have been cut more than a week ago. However, the stem material seemed to be in good condition with healthy buds. Stems that seemed affected by herbivori or possible diseases were discarded. In the first experiment (F1), stem nodes were cut in three different types of fragments (please see images shown in Appendix): Cross sectional cut 30 mm, drilled 30 mm or drilled 20 mm. The bud was centered on each fragment. In the first cut, all root primordia (placed around the stem) are intact. When the cut is made by drilling, some of the root primordia are cut off, depending on stem diameter and drill size. The stem fragments were planted in either: Ellepot 50*80 mm, plastic tube (50 mm diameter, measured inside the top of the pot, decreasing diameter towards the bottom, height 130 mm, same soil volume as in Ellepot 50*80 mm) or Ellepot 35*80 mm. After planting, the trays with pots were placed randomized, with 20 replications/ block, in four blocks. Temperature in the greenhouse was 27 °C day and 18 °C night (like mean temperatures in Sao Paolo in the main planting month, December).
The entire experiment was repeated in January 2015 (F2). Mother plants (8 months old) were originally seedlings established in exp. 1 and grown at high temperature/ high irradiation in a green house chamber. Fresh stem cuttings were used for the experiment (cut 1 to 12 hours before planting). Apart from the factors described above, we included following parameters: Two different temperature regimes and an additional cross sectional cut (20 mm) that were either planted vertically or horizontally.