Dr. Michael Dunlop

Dr Michael Dunlop of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Canberra and colleagues will report their findings at the Australian Society of Agronomy Conference in Adelaide this week.

Dunlop says based on 2001 figures, the 10 main grain crops of Australia produce about 65 million tonnes of stubble.

He says much of this needs to be left in the ground to protect soil, retain soil carbon and reduce evaporation.

This would leave just under fifteen million tonnes of remaining stubble to be distributed in a way that is economically viable to collect.

"That would be equivalent to roughly 20% of the volume of the petrol that we use," says Dunlop.

The researchers analysed figures for wheat, barley, canola, lupins, oats, sorghum, triticale, field peas and chick peas in their study.

"[Stubble] is probably one of the more widely distributed feedstocks that is currently available," says Dunlop.

Lifecycle analysis

Dunlop says it's important to consider the energy used to grow, harvest and processed a proposed biofuel feedstock.

Using waste stubble could help minimise extra energy used because the energy has already been put in to growing the grain, says Dunlop, but energy will be required to process the stubble into biofuel.

"So the quoted 20% is not 20% more energy to burn, [there's] no free lunch," he says.

Dunlop says the amount of stubble available will vary between 4 and 40 million tonnes depending on how much is produced, how much needs to be retained for soil health, as well as a range of economic and technical factors.

No competition with food

Using waste stubble would avoid having to allocate precious food-producing land to produce biofuels, says Dunlop.

And using it would also avoid having to introduce exotic and potentially weedy species.

"It's a resource that is there so we don't need to undertake any land use change in order to produce it," he says.

Dunlop also says using stubble as a feedstock would not require massive additional infrastructure.

"The infrastructure required for harvesting, collecting and distributing it is all pretty similar to that used for grains," he says.

Technical challenges

First generation feedstocks are based on starch, oil or sugar and these are more easily converted to biofuel, says Dunlop.

But Dunlop says stubble is known as a second generation feedstock because it is a woody material and is more complicated to process into biofuel.

He says the processing technology exists, but is currently expensive because it is not widely distributed.

The stubble can be broken down by a number of means including enzymes, heat and pressure, says Dunlop.

The researchers are also evaluating other possible biomass feedstocks such as forestry residues and mallee crops.

Dr Michael Dunlop of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Canberra and colleagues will report their findings at the Australian Society of Agronomy Conference in Adelaide this week.

Dr Dunlop says based on 2001 figures, the 10 main grain crops of Australia produce about 65 million tonnes of stubble.

He says much of this needs to be left in the ground to protect soil, retain soil carbon and reduce evaporation.

This would leave just under 15 million tonnes of remaining stubble to be distributed in a way that is economically viable to collect.

"That would be equivalent to roughly 20 per cent of the volume of the petrol that we use," Dr Dunlop said.

The researchers analysed figures for wheat, barley, canola, lupins, oats, sorghum, triticale, field peas and chick peas in their study.

"[Stubble] is probably one of the more widely distributed feedstocks that is currently available," Dr Dunlop said.

He says while using waste stubble could help minimise extra energy used because the energy has already been put in to growing the grain, energy will be required to process the stubble into biofuel.

"So the quoted 20 per cent is not 20 per cent more energy to burn, [there's] no free lunch," he said.

Dr Dunlop says the amount of stubble available will vary between four and 40 million tonnes depending on how much is produced, how much needs to be retained for soil health, as well as a range of economic and technical factors.

No competition

He says using waste stubble would also avoid having to allocate precious food-producing land to produce biofuels.

And using it would also avoid having to introduce exotic and potentially weedy species.

"It's a resource that is there so we don't need to undertake any land use change in order to produce it," Dr Dunlop said.

He also says using stubble as a feedstock would not require massive additional infrastructure.

"The infrastructure required for harvesting, collecting and distributing it is all pretty similar to that used for grains," he said.

Technical challenges

Dr Dunlop says first generation feedstocks are based on starch, oil or sugar and these are more easily converted to biofuel.

But he says stubble is known as a second generation feedstock because it is a woody material and is more complicated to process into biofuel.

He says the processing technology exists, but is currently expensive because it is not widely distributed.

The stubble can be broken down by a number of means including enzymes, heat and pressure, says Dunlop.

The researchers are also evaluating other possible biomass feedstocks such as forestry residues and mallee crops.

Michael Dunlop - CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems

The CSIRO's Mike Dunlop says he does not think it is feasible to protect all species in the wild."We may be able to identify some that will go extinct and protect them in zoos or botanic gardens but many species will be threatened and probably a large number will go extinct," he said. *ABC

Michael Dunlop

CSIRO sustainable Ecosystems02 6242 1715

Michael has a background in applied physics and plant ecology.More recently he has developed an interest in integration and has applied this to agricultural futures, assessing water systems, energy futures, and biodiversity-climate change policy.

For the last seven years Michael has been developing and working with scenarios of Australian agriculture and natural resources as a way of exploring interacting drivers and issues.His focus has been on the national scale with 50-100 year time frame.The scenarios he has developed are typically exploratory scenarios, ie futures that might happen as a result of assessments of contemporary and emerging drivers, rather than developing scenarios as options or preferred futures.He used scenarios in projects examining the future of Australian landscapes, the grains industry, the impact of climate change on the wool industry, water and land use nationally and in the Murray Catchment, and alternative transport fuels including biofuels.

Michael Dunlop
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Michael DunlopResearch Scientist, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems

Mike is a research scientist with CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems and has a background in physics, statistics and ecology.His current research involves exploring long-term land, water and biodiversity futures at the national scale.This involves integrating drivers of change, incomplete data, conflicting aspirations and biophysical realities in an attempt to develop useful lessons for managing natural resources in uncertain futures.

In 2003/04 Mike spend six months on secondment to the Department of Environment and Heritage (then environment Australia) to assist in developing policy to address the impacts of climate change on biodiversity.Mike then joined the task group that developed the National Biodiversity and Climate Change Action Plan for the Natural Resource Management Ministerial Council.

Dr Michael Dunlop

CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems

Michael Dunlop

Michael Dunlop is an research scientist in the National Future Group of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems.He has interests and expertise in exploring the interactions between land, water and biodiversity at the continental scale.
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Michael Dunlop

Michael Dunlop is a research scientist in the National Futures Group of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems.He has interests and expertise in exploring the interactions between land, water and biodiversity at the continental scale.
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Michael Dunlop, Mark Howden and Lesley Hughes
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Michael Dunlop is a research scientist in the National Futures Group of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems.He has interests and expertise in exploring the interactions between land, water and biodiversity at the continental scale.

The keynote speaker at the symposium, Dr Michael Dunlop, a biodiversity analyst at the CSIRO, is the author of a report looking at possible changes to biodiversity under a changing climate.

"There is no question that our natural ecosystems are going to look, sound and smell different," Dr Dunlop said.

Mike Dunlop - CSIRO