SCIENTISTS ON both sides of the Border are working on what they believe is a major potential for grass in Ireland to be used to generate methane gas for energy use without displacing either beef or milk production.
The work being carried out on the project was outlined at an international Conference and Trade Fair on Anaerobic Digestion of Organic Waste and Agricultural Residues in Dublin.
Pádraig Ó Kiely told the delegates from 15 countries that rye grass from existing swards and pastures could be used to create the energy on farms.
“Our farmers are very efficient at growing grass and handling it and bringing it to bio-digesters as is being done on 6,000 German farms,” he said.
“There is a potential to increase grass output on farms where there is underutilisation of it and this would not displace meat and milk production,” he said.
Mr Ó Kiely, a research scientist with Teagasc, the agriculture and food development organisation, said work on the digesting system was currently being carried out at Teagasc and University College Cork and Queens University, Belfast.
Queens University, he said, was working on how the grass would be ensiled for maximum output and the engineering side of the digester project was being examined in Cork.
Teagasc, he said, was looking at the species of grasses which would deliver the best results and assessing them.
He said because of the support that was given by the German government to the industry there, it was now well ahead in terms of information and equipment in this area.
Mr O’Kiely said that many of the German farms used not only grass from their lands but also grass from public areas like parks and also “belly grass”, the grass that is in the stomach of slaughtered animals.
He envisaged Irish farms using a mixture of grass and slurry for energy creation and the UCC scientists were looking at ways to handle the process because grass would float on slurry.
Mr O’Kiely said there are at least two digester plants working in the Republic, one in Kilkenny and one in Limerick.
Critical to the development of the industry here would be government support like in Germany where systems are in place to assist in areas like planning and there is also a guaranteed price for farmers selling energy to the national grid.