The biomass potential in Swedish agriculture needs to be used more effectively to produce food, feed and energy in the future and to meet Swedish sustainability goals by 2030. In the project, a biorefinery concept was designed, that consists of the three processes biogas, ley protein and bio-oil. The concept was evaluated with costs and mass balances regionally for Västra Götaland Region. Lab scale trials to produce bio-oil and biogas were also carried out. The results showed that the concept has potential to produce biofuel, protein feed and plant nutrition from agricultural residues and the cultivation of ley and create a high degree of self-sufficiency. However, a more in-depth techno-economic analysis is required as well as an analysis of possible obstacles and bottlenecks. 

The biomass potential in Swedish agriculture needs to be used more effectively to produce food, feed and energy in the future and to meet Swedish sustainability goals by 2030. In the project, a biorefinery concept was designed, that consists of the three processes biogas, ley protein and bio-oil. The concept was evaluated with costs and mass balances regionally for Västra Götaland Region. Lab scale trials to produce bio-oil and biogas were also carried out. The results showed that the concept has potential to produce biofuel, protein feed and plant nutrition from agricultural residues and the cultivation of ley and create a high degree of self-sufficiency. However, a more in-depth techno-economic analysis is required as well as an analysis of possible obstacles and bottlenecks. 

Agricultural Biorefinery - combining local and regional scale In order to achieve Sweden's sustainability goals and an increased degree of self-sufficiency, our resources need to be used in an innovative way. Resources that today are classified as residual streams can be used in a smarter way to produce the future's food, feed, fuel and energy. There is a great potential in utilizing agricultural biomasses. In the project, the potential of agriculture to supply ILUC-free feedstock to a local and regional biorefinery concept was calculated and the system was evaluated through mass and energy flow calculations, cost calculations and case descriptions on Vårgårda Herrljunga Biogas Plant (VH Biogas). In addition, practical tests were carried out on bio-oil production from dewatered digestate from participating biogas plants. Quantifications were also carried out of how the concept contributes to more resource-efficient crop cultivation with maintained humus content in soil despite increased removal of biomass from the farm. ...

Grass protein for organic feed - can Sweden become self-sufficient?

There is a great need to develop more sustainable and domestically produced protein for both feed and human consumption. Especially organic pig and poultry production today suffers from a lack of suitable alternative protein streams for feed production, which do not consist of imported soy. Extracting protein from ley grass and legumes is a way to meet this demand, which is also in line with the goal of increased food security and degree of self-sufficiency. Grass-legume mixtures are crops that is well suited for cultivation in large parts of Sweden and there are many advantages to increase the cultivation from a climatic and ecological perspective. Press juice from grass-legume mixtures can be a source of protein for monogastric animals such as pigs and poultry. The protein-rich fraction is separated from the fiber-rich fraction because most monogastric animals cannot digest plant fibers efficiently. A prerequisite for completely replacing soy with grass-legume protein concentrate is that the quality is on par with soy flour. In the project, a compilation was made of the fodder value and amino acid composition of grass-legume protein, as well as the potential to replace soy in organic pig and poultry production. In addition, information was compiled on various existing facilities for protein extraction from grass-legume mixtures and knowledge about different types of extraction processes for grass-legume protein. Scenario calculations were carried out to calculate the organic pasture potential nationally and the potential at farm level for an organic pig farm and an organic crop farm. Chemical analysis show that the grass-legume protein has similar amino acid profiles to soy and that it is expected to be able to replace traditional protein sources for monogastric animals, such as pigs and poultry. The potential is confirmed by several feeding trials for pigs and poultry where soy has been replaced with grass-legume protein without negative effects on the animals. The calculations in the project show that it is theoretically possible to replace the existing use of organic soy for monogastric animals in Sweden with grass-legume protein. But when it comes to feed optimization, it will probably be difficult to replace soymeal in all different contexts with grass-legume protein. On the organic pig farm, it is possible to adapt the existing crop rotation to replace a little more than 40% of the farm's use of soybean meal for the pigs with grass-legume protein. On the organic crop farm, it is possible to produce between 1 627 tons of grass-legume from 34 ha (20 tons dry matter (dm) of grass-legume protein) and 2 314 tons of grass-legume from 52 ha (28 tons dm of grass-legume protein) which could potentially be sold to a local or regional green biorefinery for protein extraction.

Grass-clover ley holds an importance role for a sustainable crop production and is mainly used as feed for ruminants. But ley also contains proteins, if extracted, suitable for monogastric animals such as pigs and poultry. If these proteins are extracted, the degree of self-sufficiency of proteins in Sweden can increase and better resource utilization is achieved. In this study we evaluated the utilization of fresh and ensiled grass-clover ley in a straw-based agricultural biorefinery for producing protein concentrate, ethanol, bio-oil and biogas.

Practical lab scale tests of extraction of high value components for food and feed applications from the liquid fraction after ley pressing were carried out. Pretreatments of the solid fraction prior to ethanol fermentation, bio-oil production using HTL (hydrothermal liquefaction) and biogas production were tested. The system for production and supply of the ley was described and the potential for increased ley production in Sweden was quantified. The environmental and economic efficiency of the proposed biorefinery system was evaluated using environmental systems analysis and technoeconomic assessment.

In terms of system profitability, a high protein yield in the extracted protein concentrate it is important. To achieve that, a thorough pre-treatment using mechanical biomass disintegration before fractioning is crucial. This may need to be done in several steps. Screw pressing is a common technique for fractionating ley into a liquid and solid fraction. Double pressing combined with enzymatic treatments or only water addition during the second pressing stage were found to increase the protein yield compared to single pressing. Second pressing had no effect on the amino acid profile of the protein concentrate.

After pressing fresh ley, heat coagulation or isoelectric precipitation can be used to precipitate protein concentrates in one- or two-step processes to produce protein fractions with different functional properties. Tests showed that it is possible to recover chlorophyll and carotenoids from the ley using supercritical carbon dioxide extraction. which is a suitable method for food applications as toxic organic solvents can be avoided. The ensiling process degrades the protein into smaller peptides or free amino acids which makes ensiled grass less suitable for protein recovery by heat coagulation or isoelectric precipitation. Fresh and ensiled timothy and meadow fescue showed a similar amino acid profile as soybeans.

The initial hypothesis that mechanical pressing may disintegrate the lignocellulosic structure of ley sufficiently to produce a sugar stream with a high concentration of sugar for further fermentation by enzymatic hydrolysis was not confirmed. The content of sugars released after the enzymatic hydrolysis was relatively low. The fibre fraction after the mechanical pressing can be suitable for ethanol production if an additional pretreatment method will be incorporated. Fermentation of pressed and steam-exploded ensiled mixed ley showed promising results. The bio-oils produced with the HTL-process were described of high quality, i.e., high carbon content and low ash content. Although, the obtained materials are not directly integrable in today's refineries, the ensiling did not seem to affect the material's potential for biofuel production. The methane potential tests that were carried out in the project of the liquid residual fraction after protein extraction and after the HTL process showed that both can be suitable for methane production, but they showed great behavior differences.

The results from the environmental system analysis showed that extraction of high-quality products from ley, straw and sawdust according to the studied system reduces climate impact (CO2 eq) when the use of ethanol, bio-oil and biogas replaces fossil fuels, protein concentrate replaces soy as feed and carbon dioxide replaces fossil carbon dioxide. At present, the climate impact from extracted protein concentrate is higher than for soybean meal. Grass source for protein extraction followed by ethanol and bio-oil production as an alternative to straw-based ethanol and bio-oil production did not seem to improve the profitability of the studied biorefinery system. Profitability may be improved if protein extraction is performed the whole all year and not seasonal. Higher prices of the extracted protein concentrate may also improve profitability.

The potential for increased grassland cultivation in Sweden for biorefining was estimated at approximately 3.4 million tonnes grass per year. This included incorporating grassland in the crop rotation in grain-dominated areas, intensification of existing grassland cultivation, utilization of fallow and abandoned arable land for grassland cultivation.

Based on the results and the experience acquired from this project, we suggest an extraction plant for grass-clover ley that operates for both fresh and ensiled grassland all year. The plant needs to be supplemented with more advanced technologies such as membrane filtration for the extraction of amino acids from the ensiled ley during the winter season. The protein extraction plants should be located near farms. The extraction plant is also suggested to be located together with a biogas plant to enable co-digesting residual fractions with manure. Thereby, enabling plant nutrients and minerals in digestate to be returned to arable land. Utilizing the solid fiber fraction for biofuel production with fermentation and HTL in large-scale processes remains promising.

En ökad tillförsel och avsättning av biomassa är, och har varit, en av de viktigaste strategierna i Sverige för att nå uppsatta klimatmål. En möjlig väg för att utnyttja biomassans fulla potential är att öka samverkan mellan jord- och skogsbruk och tillhörande förädlingsindustri. Exempel på möjliga synergier finns inom logistik, hantering och förbehandling samt i förädlingsprocessen. Det övergripande syftet med detta projekt är att undersöka hur det genom att kombinera flöden från jord- och skogsbruket går att bättre förse den nya framväxande biobaserade industrin med råvara samtidigt som nya affärsmöjligheter skapas för de enskilda jord- och skogsägarna. Målet är att identifiera vilka områden/delar av värdekedjan samt förädlingsprocesser där det finns mest att vinna på flexibel tillförsel av restströmmar från skogen och åkern samt påvisa möjligheter och potentialer. Projektet är tänkt som en förstudie för att identifiera områden att jobba vidare med i fördjupande projekt. Projektet utgjordes av tre delar. En del där biomassapotentialen från jord- och skogsbruk sammanställdes och där olika bioraffinaderiprocesser och möjligheterna att använda olika biomassor i dessa identifierades. En del där de potentiella utmaningar och hinder som måste överbryggas för att möjliggöra dessa nya flöden mot bioraffinaderier kartlades. När hinder och utmaningar kopplande till att skapa en ny integrerad och flexibel råvaruström var identifierade flyttades fokus mot lösningarna och hur man via synergier kan adressera dessa. Den avslutande delen fokuserade på affärsmöjligheter för jord- och skogsbrukaren. Dessa beskrevs genom två case; en flexibel förgasningsanläggning för jord- och skogsrester och ett koncept med biogas kombinerat med HTL. Projektets resultat visade att det finns en stor potential att leverera biomassa i form av restströmmar hos gårdar inriktade mot både jord- och skogsbruk. De största mängderna finns inom skogsbruket där grot står för den största potentialen. Inom jordbrukets växtodling utgör halm den största potentialen och inom mjölkproduktionen står gödseln för en stor potential. Den har dock en hög vattenhalt vilket gör lokal förädling viktigt för att undvika höga transportkostnader. Restströmmarnas lämplighet och möjlighet att användas i de olika processerna utvärderades och sammanställdes med avseende på tekniska förutsättningar och kommersiell mognadsgrad. Som framgår av tabellen nedan är de skogliga sortimenten bäst lämpade för olika termokemiska processer. Även halm ses som en intressant råvara för förgasningsprocesser. Restströmmar från jordbruket lämpar sig för biokemiska tillämpningar, i första hand rötning.

This report presents the results from the EU project AGROinLOG (Grant Agreement 727921) and focuses on the development of a roadmap for the grain processing industry to develop Integrated Biomass Logistic Centres in Skåne. More information concerning the Swedish contribution can be found in the public report AGROinLOG (2020a).The Swedish partners of the AGROinLOG project have been interacting with different stakeholders from the grain processing industry in Skåne (South of Sweden) to investigate the existing hinders and drivers for the development of Integrated Biomass Logistic Centres (IBLC) in the region. This report focuses in particular into the milling industry in Skåne in regard to its potential, the utilization of the by-product bran and limitation for the implementation of IBLC. The objective of this reports is to propose a roadmap for the transformation of the current milling sector into an IBLC.The reader will first get a brief introduction to the IBLC concept and a detailed status of the cereal production and milling industry in Skåne. The process for data collection included many interactions with the industry and other relevant stakeholders. The results are then presented.The roadmap uses a backcasting approach starting with the development of a desired sustainable vision of the future. The vision foreseen that mills have developed into IBLCs and collaborate with many actors to produce a wider range of products and add values to other by-products than the mills’ own by-products. This new activity is profitable for the mills but also for other processing industries. The products developed are highly demanded by the consumers.The authors then mapped the current situation looking in particular at hinders, potential conflict of interest, and policy support. The hinders could be clustered into six categories: supply, communication, regulation, economy, market, and logistic. The conflict of interest for the valorisation of bran is low as it is used for human consumption to a low extent. It could however conflict with the animal feeding industry. Different kind of supports are needed at the different stage of the innovation development. Skåne, and Sweden in general have good access to supporting schemes. More technical data concerning the current status of the milling sector is included in the background chapter.Finally, concrete measures for moving from the current situation to the vision are discussed. The most important measure to implement would be to develop a market for the new bio-based products. To support this, a number of measures should be implemented in a joint effort. These measures include technical development, collaboration, and communication. Moreover, sustainability must be a red thread in this transformation, and new legislation should provide a supportive framework.

This report is about ley for ethanol production, with focus on the cultivation and handling, and is part of the project " Biofuel from agricultural side streams and straw in a system perspective " financed by the Swedish Energy Agency. The project is a continuation of the issue of secure raw material supply from the EU project AGROinLOG, which is about producing ethanol from straw.

In order to be cost effective, ethanol is usually produced in large-scale plants, and with straw as a feedstock a secure supply of large quantities of straw is required. Producing ethanol from ley broadens the raw material base and is an opportunity to secure the supply of raw materials, especially during years with low cereal yields or with difficult harvest conditions for the straw. Introducing ley to a cereal-dominated crop rotation gives many positive effects on the cultivation system and to subsequent crops. There need to be a market and a buyer of the crop for the grain producers to be interested in ley cultivation. This report focuses on how a concept for ley to ethanol could look from the farmer's perspective.

One question in the project was if the choice of grass and legumes variety is important. Four varieties of grass, as well as red clover and alfalfa, were harvested and collected in the project, in pure stand from Lantmännen's variety trials in Lännäs and Svalöv. The interviews with farmers conducted in the project showed that nitrogen fixating legumes such as clover and alfalfa are interesting from a farmer’s perspective for the positive effects, they have on the cultivation system. They should preferably be cultivated in combination with a fast-growing grass variety. The analyses that were done to investigate how the different ley species work as substrates for ethanol and bio-oil production showed that all the tested varieties work in these processes.

In order to supply an ethanol plant with substrate all year round, the possibility to deliver both fresh and ensiled grass was studied. Fresh ley can be supplied to the plant from late May to late October. Depending on the extent of the fresh ley supply, it is complemented with silage or straw to cover the daily feedstock need.

In order to avoid losses and heating of the material before entering the plant, the fresh ley should be harvested continuously every or every second day. Also, the ley should be physically damaged or cut as little as possible during harvesting and handling. The harvesting of fresh grass can be done in two steps. First the grass is mowed and left in swaths on the field. After that a forage wagon picks up the ley followed by transport to the plant. The other option is a direct-harvesting system using a tractor with a direct cut forage wagon and a mower in the front. The grass is cut and directly put in the wagon for transport to the plant. Which system to choose depends on how much grass is to be delivered per occasion and what degree of damage to the structure that is desired before delivery. For the ensiled ley the same kind of large-scale, cost-effective harvesting system usually used for harvesting of ley for animal production is suggested, typically consisting of a mower followed by a self -propelled precision chopper with separate wagons for transport to the plant.

Essentially, three actors are involved in the delivery of ley to the ethanol plant, the farmer, the ethanol producer and a contractor who performs one or more steps in the harvesting and handling chain. Depending on the interests and conditions of the actors, two alternatives can be used to describe who is doing what. In option 1, the farmer establishes the ley and sells it on root. Then it is the buyer, or a contractor hired by the buyer, who handles harvesting, transport and storage. Depending on conditions on farm and plant, storage can be done on farm, on an intermediate storage or on plant. Option 2 means that the farmer has a more active role in cultivation, harvesting and transport and delivers the ley to the plant, either fresh at harvest or ensiled during the rest of the year.

Two alternative concepts have been identified for delivering ley to ethanol production, where the proximity to the ethanol plant is what distinguishes the concepts. The concept "close" is aimed at farms located a short distance from Agroetanol. Fresh ley grass can be delivered with tractor to the plant during the growing season and ensiled ley grass is delivered by truck from the farm. The short distance makes it more interesting to receive, primarily, liquid residual streams that are produced at the ethanol plant. For the farm "further away" it is primarily silage that can be delivered because the silage has a lower water content compared to fresh ley, which means that it has lower transport costs.

There are large amounts of unutilized silage from agriculture and from municipalities that harvest meadows and grasslands. This biomass is a disposal problem and a cost. At the same time, there are biogas plants which have an increased demand for substrates that do not compete with the production of feed and food. Unutilized silage can be an excellent biogas substrate provided it is effectively pretreated. This study is conducted as a case study of Jordberga Biogas plant in Skåne (in the south of Sweden), although the results of the project are applicable to other regions in Sweden where unutilized silage exists. The project aim was to study a 20 % replacement

of today’s crop-based substrates in Jordberga biogas plant with unutilized silage from agriculture and municipalities. The project has been conducted by RISE Agrifood and Bioscience in collaboration with the German Biomass Research Center (Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum, DBFZ), Gasum, County Administrative Board of Skåne and Fogda Farm.

The project was divided into three parts. In the first part the amounts of different types of unutilized silage was estimated, from arable land and forage areas at municipalities and County Administrative Boards, for the area around the Gasum Biogas plant in Jordberga, and for Sweden in total. In a second part the adequate technique for pretreatment was identified and tested in practical trials on different types of unutilized silage. In the third part cost calculations were done for the disintegration of the unutilized silage.

The study showed that the largest potential for unutilized silage is from forage production. The area of meadows is much less with much lower yield. An assumption was made that 5% of the total amount of unutilized silage bales are available for biogas production. Project calculations showed that 35% of these must be used to substitute 20% of the crop based substrates at Jordberga. Depending on the quality and biogas yield, 12-23 ton DM is needed per day.

Based on earlier studies and experiences from the project group, three machines were chosen for the practical tests to disintegrate silage bales; Rot Grind, RS CutMaster and I-GRIND. Roto Grind and I-GRIND used hammermill technique whereas RS CutMaster

used knife rotors for disintegration. All three machines managed to disintegrate silage bales with DM-content varying from 40-70% DM. The particle length after disintegration was analyzed and a visual estimation of the effect on particle structure was made. Particle size after disintegration was the same for Roto Grind and RS CutMaster whereas it was considerable longer for I-GRIND. Disintegration worked better on silage with lower DM content regarding both particle size and structure for all tested machines.

Based on the test results RS CutMaster had higher total disintegration costs compared with Roto Grind and I-GRIND. The differences in costs was mainly due to lower measured capacity of RS CutMaster, and higher depreciation and maintenance costs of both RS CutMaster and I-GRIND. To lower the costs to same level as Roto Grind and I-GRIND, RS CutMaster would need approximately 40% higher capacity than measured in the tests.

Stora mängder outnyttjat ensilage finns inom lantbruket samt när kommun och länsstyrelse skördar de vallar och slåtterängar som de ansvarar för att sköta. Denna biomassa är ofta ett kvittblivningsproblem och en kostnad. Samtidigt efterfrågar biogasanläggningar substrat som inte konkurrerar med produktion av foder och livsmedel. Outnyttjat ensilage kan vara ett utmärkt substrat under förutsättning att det förbehandlas effektivt. Projektet utfördes som en fallstudie av Jordberga biogasanläggning i Skåne där resultaten från projektet är tillämpbara på andra regioner i Sverige där outnyttjad biomassa finns. Projektets syfte var att genom lönsam hantering kunna ersätta 20 % dagens åkerbaserade substrat i Jordberga biogasanläggning med outnyttjat ensilage från lantbruk samt slåtterytor hos kommun och länsstyrelse. Projektet har genomförts av RISE Jordbruk och Livsmedel tillsammans med det tyska biomassaforskningscentrat Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum (DBFZ), Gasum, Länsstyrelsen i Skåne och Fogda Farm.

Projektet utgjordes av tre delar. En del där mängderna av olika typer av outnyttjat ensilage från jordbruksmark samt slåtterytor hos kommun och länsstyrelse upp-skattades, dels för området runt Gasums biogasanläggning i Jordberga, dels för hela Sverige. En del där lämplig teknik för sönderdelning identifierades och sedan testades i praktiska försök på olika typer av outnyttjat ensilage. Sedan en del där kostnaderna beräknades för hantering och sönderdelning av det outnyttjade ensilaget.

Vid uppskattningen av mängderna outnyttjat ensilage visade det sig att den stora potentialen finns från outnyttjat ensilage från vallodling. Arealen befintlig slåtteräng är betydligt mindre och med en betydligt lägre avkastning. Antagandet gjordes att 5% av den totala mängden outnyttjade ensilagebalar är tillgängligt för biogasproduktion. Projektets beräkningar visade att 35% av dessa måste samlas in för att uppnå projektets mål att ersätta 20% av Jordbergas grödbaserade substrat. Beroende på balensilagets kvalitet och biogasutbyte behövs då 12-23 ton ts/dygn.

Baserat på tidigare studier och erfarenheter från projektgruppen valdes tre maskiner ut för praktiska sönderdelningstester; Roto Grind, RS CutMaster och I-GRIND. I Roto Grind och I-GRIND sker sönderdelningen med en hammarkvarn medan RS CutMaster har knivar som sönderdelar materialet. Samtliga tre testade maskiner klarade av att sönderdela ensilage med ts-halt varierande mellan 40 och 70%. Strålängden efter sönderdelning analyserades i en sorteringsmaskin och en visuell bedömning gjordes av hur ensilagets struktur påverkats. Den analyserade strålängden för Roto Grind och RS CutMaster var lika, medan I-GRIND gett betydligt längre material. Sönderdelningen fungerade bättre på det fuktigare ensilaget än på det torrare både med avseende på både strålängd och struktur i samtliga maskiner.

Baserat på resultaten från våra tester hade RS CutMaster högre totala sönder-delningskostnader än Roto Grind och I-GRIND. Främsta orsakerna till detta är lägre uppmätt kapacitet hos RS CutMaster samt högre inköps- och underhållskostnader för RS CutMaster och I-GRIND. För att komma ner till samma kostnadsnivå skulle RS CutMaster behöva ha ca 40% högre kapacitet än den som uppmättes i testet som gjordes i projektet.