DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Cellulosic feedstock production on Conservation Reserve Program land: potential yields and environmental effects

Abstract

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.more » 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.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [3]
  1. National Center for Environmental Assessment, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 8623P Washington DC 20460 USA
  2. 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
  3. 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
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of Wisconsin System, Madison, WI (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
OSTI Identifier:
1341329
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1341330; OSTI ID: 1361520
Grant/Contract Number:  
FC02-07ER64494; KP1601050; DOE EERE OBP 20469-19145
Resource Type:
Published Article
Journal Name:
Global Change Biology. Bioenergy
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Name: Global Change Biology. Bioenergy Journal Volume: 9 Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 1757-1693
Publisher:
Wiley
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English
Subject:
09 BIOMASS FUELS; biofuel; biomass; carbon; Conservation Reserve Program; erosion; nitrogen; no-till corn; residue removal; switchgrass

Citation Formats

LeDuc, Stephen D., Zhang, Xuesong, Clark, Christopher M., and Izaurralde, R. César. Cellulosic feedstock production on Conservation Reserve Program land: potential yields and environmental effects. United Kingdom: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1111/gcbb.12352.
LeDuc, Stephen D., Zhang, Xuesong, Clark, Christopher M., & Izaurralde, R. César. Cellulosic feedstock production on Conservation Reserve Program land: potential yields and environmental effects. United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12352
LeDuc, Stephen D., Zhang, Xuesong, Clark, Christopher M., and Izaurralde, R. César. Tue . "Cellulosic feedstock production on Conservation Reserve Program land: potential yields and environmental effects". United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12352.
@article{osti_1341329,
title = {Cellulosic feedstock production on Conservation Reserve Program land: potential yields and environmental effects},
author = {LeDuc, Stephen D. and Zhang, Xuesong and Clark, Christopher M. and Izaurralde, R. César},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1111/gcbb.12352},
journal = {Global Change Biology. Bioenergy},
number = 2,
volume = 9,
place = {United Kingdom},
year = {Tue Apr 26 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Tue Apr 26 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12352

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 24 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Simulating Long-Term and Residual Effects of Nitrogen Fertilization on Corn Yields, Soil Carbon Sequestration, and Soil Nitrogen Dynamics
journal, January 2006

  • He, X.; Izaurralde, R. C.; Vanotti, M. B.
  • Journal of Environment Quality, Vol. 35, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.2134/jeq2005.0259

Recent land use change in the Western Corn Belt threatens grasslands and wetlands
journal, February 2013

  • Wright, C. K.; Wimberly, M. C.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 110, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1215404110

EPIC and APEX: Model Use, Calibration, and Validation
journal, January 2012


The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
journal, January 2007

  • Farr, Tom G.; Rosen, Paul A.; Caro, Edward
  • Reviews of Geophysics, Vol. 45, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1029/2005RG000183

Changes in soil organic carbon under biofuel crops
journal, February 2009


Aboveground productivity and soil carbon storage of biofuel crops in Ohio
journal, December 2012


Soil Carbon Storage by Switchgrass Grown for Bioenergy
journal, September 2008


Sensitivity and Uncertainty Analyses of crop Yields and soil Organic Carbon Simulated with epic
journal, January 2005


Simulation study of soil organic matter dynamics as affected by land use and agricultural practices in semiarid Córdoba, Argentina
journal, January 2009


Simulating Field-Scale Soil Organic Carbon Dynamics Using EPIC
journal, January 2007

  • Causarano, Hector J.; Shaw, Joey N.; Franzluebbers, Alan J.
  • Soil Science Society of America Journal, Vol. 71, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.2136/sssaj2006.0356

Carbon debt of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands converted to bioenergy production
journal, August 2011

  • Gelfand, I.; Zenone, T.; Jasrotia, P.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 108, Issue 33
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1017277108

Multilocation Corn Stover Harvest Effects on Crop Yields and Nutrient Removal
journal, February 2014

  • Karlen, Douglas L.; Birrell, Stuart J.; Johnson, Jane M. F.
  • BioEnergy Research, Vol. 7, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1007/s12155-014-9419-7

Corn–Soybean Rotation Effects on Nitrate Leaching
journal, January 2003


Soil and crop response to harvesting corn residues for biofuel production
journal, October 2007


Current and Potential U.S. Corn Stover Supplies
journal, January 2007


Simulating soil C dynamics with EPIC: Model description and testing against long-term data
journal, February 2006


Regional scale cropland carbon budgets: Evaluating a geospatial agricultural modeling system using inventory data
journal, January 2015


Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest
journal, January 2013

  • Gelfand, Ilya; Sahajpal, Ritvik; Zhang, Xuesong
  • Nature, Vol. 493, Issue 7433
  • DOI: 10.1038/nature11811

No-Tillage and Soil-Profile Carbon Sequestration: An On-Farm Assessment
journal, January 2008

  • Blanco-Canqui, Humberto; Lal, R.
  • Soil Science Society of America Journal, Vol. 72, Issue 3
  • DOI: 10.2136/sssaj2007.0233

Beneficial Biofuels--The Food, Energy, and Environment Trilemma
journal, July 2009


Cropland expansion outpaces agricultural and biofuel policies in the United States
journal, April 2015


Soil organic carbon in playas and adjacent prairies, cropland, and Conservation Reserve Program land of the High Plains, USA
journal, March 2016


A model-data intercomparison of CO 2 exchange across North America: Results from the North American Carbon Program site synthesis
journal, January 2010

  • Schwalm, Christopher R.; Williams, Christopher A.; Schaefer, Kevin
  • Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 115
  • DOI: 10.1029/2009JG001229

Environmental considerations in energy crop production
journal, January 1994


Corn-Based Ethanol Production and Environmental Quality: A Case of Iowa and the Conservation Reserve Program
journal, August 2009

  • Secchi, Silvia; Gassman, Philip W.; Williams, Jimmy R.
  • Environmental Management, Vol. 44, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.1007/s00267-009-9365-x

Long-term modeling of soil C erosion and sequestration at the small watershed scale
journal, December 2006


EPIC Modeling of Soil Organic Carbon Sequestration in Croplands of Iowa
journal, January 2008

  • Causarano, Hector J.; Doraiswamy, Paul C.; McCarty, Gregory W.
  • Journal of Environment Quality, Vol. 37, Issue 4
  • DOI: 10.2134/jeq2007.0277

Energy Crops and Their Implications on Soil and Environment
journal, January 2010


Net energy of cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass
journal, January 2008

  • Schmer, M. R.; Vogel, K. P.; Mitchell, R. B.
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 105, Issue 2
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0704767105

Carbon-Negative Biofuels from Low-Input High-Diversity Grassland Biomass
journal, December 2006


Modifying the Soil and Water Assessment Tool to simulate cropland carbon flux: Model development and initial evaluation
journal, October 2013


Landowner willingness to supply marginal land for bioenergy production
journal, January 2016