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Title: Assessment of Perennial Grass Inventories Predicted in the Billion-Ton Studies

Journal Article · · Transactions of the ASABE (Online)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.13031/trans.12505· OSTI ID:1468049
 [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3]
  1. Duke Univ., Durham, NC (United States)
  2. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
  3. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
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Here, we report the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has estimated herbaceous biomass availability through simulations with the Policy Analysis System (POLYSYS) agricultural modeling framework. An operational assumption for POLYSYS limited conversion of pastureland to perennial grass crops to counties east of the 100th meridian as a proxy for precipitation sufficient for economically viable yield, but allowed cropland conversion regardless of location. Knowledge of local conditions raised questions about predicted biomass quantities for Texas counties in the 2011 assessment. POLYSYS was rerun with different assumptions, specifically replacing the 100th meridian boundary with annual average precipitation data and limiting cropland conversion in low-rainfall counties. Perennial grass production was found to be overestimated by 8% and 87% in the U.S. and Texas, respectively (at $66.14 DMg-1), when limiting all land conversion to regions with >635 mm precipitation. Total herbaceous biomass predicted was approximately the same as in the BT2, but the biomass geographical location changed across the nation. Texas’ biomass contribution decreased from 6% to 1% at $66.14 DMg-1and from 16% to 11% at $88.18 DMg-1. Lastly, subsequent to this research being conducted, the DOE released the 2016 biomass inventory assessment, and these results are compared to those newest estimates.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1468049
Journal Information:
Transactions of the ASABE (Online), Vol. 61, Issue 2; ISSN 2151-0040
Publisher:
American Society of Agricultural and Biological EngineersCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 1 work
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Cited By (1)

Screening of bacterial and fungal strains for cellulase and xylanase production using distillers’ dried grains with solubles (DDGS) as the main feedstock journal January 2020

Figures / Tables (11)

Figure 1.(p. 4)figure Figure 1.
Figure 2.(p. 5)figure Figure 2.
Table 1.(p. 7)table Table 1.
Figure 3.(p. 8)figure Figure 3.
Table 2.(p. 8)table Table 2.
Figure 4.(p. 10)figure Figure 4.
Figure 5.(p. 11)figure Figure 5.
Table 3.(p. 11)table Table 3.
Table 4.(p. 12)table Table 4.
Table 5.(p. 13)table Table 5.
Table 6.(p. 15)table Table 6.

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Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Billion-Ton Study
Biomass
Perennial grass
Precipitation
Switchgrass