Cellulosic feedstock production on Conservation Reserve Program land: potential yields and environmental effects
- National Center for Environmental Assessment, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 8623P Washington DC 20460 USA
- Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Lab, 5825 University Research Court Suite 1200 College Park MD 20740 USA, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing MI 48824 USA
- Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing MI 48824 USA, Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park MD 20742 USA, Texas AgriLife Research, Texas A&M University, Temple TX 76502 USA
Producing biofuel feedstocks on current agricultural land raises questions of a ‘food-vs.-fuel’ trade-off. The use of current or former Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land offers an alternative; yet the volumes of ethanol that could be produced and the potential environmental impacts of such a policy are unclear. Here, we applied the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate model to a US Department of Agriculture database of over 200 000 CRP polygons in Iowa, USA, as a case study. We simulated yields and environmental impacts of growing three cellulosic biofuel feedstocks on CRP land: (i) an Alamo-variety switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.); (ii) a generalized mixture of C4 and C3 grasses; (iii) and no-till corn (Zea mays L.) with residue removal. We simulated yields, soil erosion, and soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stocks and fluxes. We found that although no-till corn with residue removal produced approximately 2.6–4.4 times more ethanol per area compared to switchgrass and the grass mixture, it also led to 3.9–4.5 times more erosion, 4.4–5.2 times more cumulative N loss, and a 10% reduction in total soil carbon as opposed to a 6–11% increase. Switchgrass resulted in the best environmental outcomes even when expressed on a per liter ethanol basis. Our results suggest planting no-till corn with residue removal should only be done on low slope soils to minimize environmental concerns. Altogether, this analysis provides additional information to policy makers on the potential outcome and effects of producing biofuel feedstocks on current or former conservation lands.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Wisconsin System, Madison, WI (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FC02-07ER64494; KP1601050; DOE EERE OBP 20469-19145
- OSTI ID:
- 1341329
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1341330; OSTI ID: 1361520
- Journal Information:
- Global Change Biology. Bioenergy, Journal Name: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy Vol. 9 Journal Issue: 2; ISSN 1757-1693
- Publisher:
- WileyCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Language:
- English
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