PHILIPPA Noble has a long-term vision of greenhouse-friendly energy production on Victorian farms.

As a private forestry industry development officer, Mrs Noble is keen to promote farm trees for energy.

She is part of a project investigating the use of plantation thinnings in electricity production via a gasification process.

Gasification is the high-temperature conversion of wood into a gaseous fuel mixture containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

"My vision is for farms to have their own biomass plantation integrated into the farming system," Mrs Noble said.

"A contractor would harvest a portion of the plantation at intervals, process it into cubes which are stored for feeding into an on-farm gasifier to provide the farm's high energy needs.

"Excess electricity can be fed into the grid for further income.

"Alternatively, a larger regional gasifier might supply electricity to a community, being fed from biomass from surrounding farmer plantations.

"This is happening overseas, we are just so slow to take it on board in Australia."

The gasification project is one of the first of its kind in Australia and is being undertaken by FFORNE Hardwood Co-operative, Plantation North East, Department of Primary Industries, Treesmart and Gasifi- cation Australia.

The co-operative, based in the North East, has 65 members and 1600ha of agroforestry plantations.

The majority of species are blue, shining, Sydney blue and flooded gums.

Gasification project manager, Bruce Sonogan, said sustaining and maintaining trees while generating renewable power was a genuine option for farmers.

He said the project would evaluate harvesting systems for thinning in hardwood plantations and in-field processing systems for producing wood cubes suitable for gasifiers.

It would also outline gasifiers suitable for using woody biomass, systems suitable for on-farm electricity production and the potential for supplying the power grid from farms.

Mr Sonogan said the technology was not new and had been widely adopted in World War II to power vehicles when petrol was rationed.

The by-products of the gasification process are low-grade activated carbon, ash and water, all of which can be used as a soil fertiliser. Waste heat is also produced and can be used to pre-dry timber, heat greenhouses or water for cleaning milk plants.

The composition of the gas produced is generally 51 per cent nitrogen, 20 per cent carbon monoxide, 18 per cent hydrogen, 10 per cent carbon dioxide and 1 per cent methane.

Mr Sonogan said plantation thinnings were an ideal feedstock fuel for a gasifier.

"Co-operative members are always searching for ways to use the plantation timber, particularly the thinnings," he said.

"If they could find a use that was profitable, it would help with the overall economics of the plantations.

"The idea of using thinnings to produce electricity was attractive to them."

Under the six-month, $78,000 project, co-operative members will display a wood-fired gasifier with a 15 kilowatt electrical output at the Seymour Expo on February 20-22.

"In this gasification unit, we are using wood to produce a gas which is fed into an internal combustion engine to produce electricity," Mr Sonogan said.

"The unit is suited to remote or isolated locations where electricity is needed, such as irrigation or bore pumps."

Mr Sonogan said the majority of forestry plantations were planted at 1000 stems a hectare and thinned to 500 stems/ha at four to five years of age.

He said the labour and machinery cost of removing the first thinnings, measuring less than 10cm in diameter, were high and most were left as mulch.

"The second thinning takes place at six to seven years with the larger trees more suited to gasification," Mr Sonogan said.

"A wood chipper reduces the trees to small chunks the size of a matchbox.

"As part of this project we are evaluating the best woodchip size and also the machinery harvesting timber for gasification.

"We will also look into a mobile gasification unit which can be used at specific times on-farm for electricity generation such as summer irrigation."

For more details phone Bruce Sonogan on (03) 5761 1666.