Evaluation of Alternatives to Open Burning of Forest and Agricultural Residues (Other Than Rice Straw) in California

摘要

The purpose of this project was to assess the technical and economic merits of alternatives to open burning of forest and agricultural residues in California. Residues included in this evaluation were wood wastes from trees, vines, and bushes; waste from fruit and nut crops; and wastes from field crops other than rice. Alternative conversions evaluated were livestock feed, fiberboard, paper, hydromulch, energy products, chemicals, compost, and controlled burning. This project evaluated the major factors affecting conversion of residues including the identification of the quantity of residue being burned, assessment of harvesting and storage methods, evaluation of product markets, evaluation of the impacts on farming and forestry practices, and assessment of the technical and economic feasibility of the conversion processes. Based on a set of criteria that were developed to reflect these issues, the conversion processes were rank-ordered. For woody residues (forest and orchard), the best options were ascertained to be large sale combustion, fiberboard, pulp and paper, small scale combustion, methanol, and composting. For field crop residues, the best options were small scale combustion, large scale combustion, composting, hydromulch, feed production, and anaerobic digestion. (ERA citation 08:005529)