New agreements set to potentially extend global biomass crop growth

US-based biomass energy project developer Patriot Bioenergy (PB) has signed two new agreements to expand its current biomass energy crop development.

The international partnerships will have PB working with Uruguayan biological product research and development company Lage y Cia and Hapy, a leader in the science of inoculates that boost soil nutrients and plant growth in marginal environments for crop yield improvement based in Milan, Italy.

‘We are pleased to partner with both Lage and Hapy. Our research will positively impact our collective efforts to improve production efficiencies of crop yields on marginal agricultural and post-mining land,’ says partner at PB Roger Ford. ‘ By increasing production yields we will produce more biomass per acre, leading to increased feedstock for bio-fuel production on marginal land, including post-mining land.’

All three companies are members of the European Community’s energy biomass research group ESSE, which collaborates on the use of non-food agricultural biomass energy crops.  The goal is to provide essential research leading to the deployment and commercialisation of biomass crop production in rural regions all around the world.

PB is also reported to be growing 20 acres of beets in Kentucky as pilot feedstock for heat and power at an ethanol plant it hopes to build on a former concrete plant in Williamsburg.