Biorefinery Feedstock Production on Conservation Reserve Program Land

Mapemba, Lawrence; Epplin, Francis M.; Taliaferro, C. M.; Huhnke, Raymond L.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9353.2007.00340.x

Cited by 55 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…This is a reasonable average yield over a variety of soil types consistent with available studies and is achieved using low levels of fertilizer and no irrigation (Walsh, 1998;Lemus et al, 2002;Kumar & Sokhansanj, 2007;Mapemba et al, 2007;Schmer et al, 2008).…”

supporting

confidence: 78%

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Environmental and economic analysis of the fully integrated biorefinery

Sendich¹,

Dale²

2009

GCB Bioenergy

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Cellulosic biofuel systems have the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of the world's transportation energy requirements. However, realizing this potential will require systems level thinking and scale integration. Until now, we have lacked modeling tools for studying the behavior of integrated cellulosic biofuel systems. In this paper, we describe a new research tool, the Biorefinery and Farm Integration Tool (BFIT) in which the production of fuel ethanol from cellulosic biomass is integrated with crop and animal (agricultural) production models. Uniting these three subsystems in a single combined model has allowed, for the first time, basic environmental and economic analysis of biomass production, possible secondary products, fertilizer production, and bioenergy production across various regions of the United States. Using BFIT, we simulate cellulosic ethanol production embedded in realistic agricultural landscapes in nine locations under a collection of farm management scenarios. This combined modeling approach permits analysis of economic profitability and highlights key areas for environmental improvement. These results show the advantages of introducing integrated biorefinery systems within agricultural landscapes. This is particularly true in the Midwest, which our results suggest is a good setting for the cellulosic ethanol industry. Specifically, results show that inclusion of cellulosic biofuel systems into existing agriculture enhances farm economics and reduces total landscape emissions. Model results also indicate a limited ethanol price effect from increased biomass transportation distance. Sensitivity analysis using BFIT revealed those variables having the strongest effects on the overall system performance, namely: biorefinery size, switchgrass yield, and biomass farm gate price.

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supporting

confidence: 78%

“…Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands are viable for cropping switchgrass and may be counted as available for biorefinery supply (Mapemba et al, 2007). The transport radius assuming 75% farmer participation was selected for sensitivity analysis simulations.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental and economic analysis of the fully integrated biorefinery

Sendich¹,

Dale²

2009

GCB Bioenergy

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“…In this study, this is done by calculating the "annualized cost" of production [3,17], using a real discount rate of 10%. While the average real prime discount rate in the USA is only about 4%, and the historic real rate of return to land is similar [12], a real rate of 10% is a more conservative estimate of the rate that is appropriate for enterprises with risks comparable to those of a switchgrass crop. To evaluate the sensitivity of results to this assumption, we have calculated that when the interest rate is reduced from 10% to 4%, the average cost per Mg is reduced by 4.1%, with the reduction at individual sites ranging from 2.2% (Huron) to 6.8% (Atkinson.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Farm-Scale Production Cost of Switchgrass for Biomass

et al. 2008

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The economic potential of cellulosic biomass from switchgrass has heretofore been evaluated using estimates of farm costs based on extrapolation from experimental data and budget estimates. The objective of the project reported here was to estimate the cost of production that would be experienced by farmers on commercial production situations. Switchgrass was produced as a biomass crop on commercial-scale fields by ten contracting farmers located from northern North Dakota to southern Nebraska. Results showed a wide range of yields and costs across the five production years and ten sites, with an overall average cost of $65.86 Mg −1 of biomass dry matter, and annualized yield of 5.0 Mg ha −1 . The lowcost half of the producers were able to produce at an average cost of $51.95 Mg −1 over the 5-year period. When projected to a full 10-year rotation, their cost fell further to $46.26 Mg −1 . We conclude that substantial quantities of biomass feedstock could have been produced in this region at a cost of about $50 Mg −1 at the farm gate, which translates to about $0.13/l of ethanol. These results provide a more reliable benchmark for current commercial production costs as compared to other estimates, which range from $25 to $100 Mg −1 .

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“…Some research has been conducted on various biomass-tobioenergy related problems, for example, several case studies on transportation chains (e.g., for cotton-stalk Ravula et al, 2008b;Tatsiopoulos and Tolis, 2003, for herbaceous biomass Cundiff et al, 1997;Cundiff and Grisso, 2008;Ravula et al, 2008a, and for forest biomass Forsberg, 2000), various cost analysis (e.g., harvesting cost analysis Thorsell et al, 2004, cost analysis of producing and harvesting switchgrass Sokhansanj et al, 2009), delivering cost analysis including harvesting, storing, and transportation costs (Mapemba et al, 2007;Nilsson, 2000;Allen et al, 1998), and techno-economic evaluation (Gnansounou and Dauriat, 2010), investigations on environmental impacts on activities in the logistics system (Allen et al, 1998;Forsberg, 2000;Seppälä et al, 2009), and life cycle assessment of lignocellulosic bioethanol production (Spatari et al, 2010;Singh et al, 2010). Fiedler et al (2007) and Allen et al (1998) discussed some issues (e.g., the requirements for biomass supply, supply processes, and transportation networks) on designing cost-efficient supply systems for the industrialized use of biomass resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such a supporting logistics system for the biomass-to-bioenergy industry is different from any other industry, even coal-based power plants. Its uniqueness is generated from the features of switchgrass, weather and calamity effects, the scattered distribution of switchgrass producers over a wide geographical area, the large demand for switchgrass (thousands of dry tons per day, Mapemba et al, 2007), the rigid requirements on switchgrass from the biorefinery, sharing of harvesting and transportation capacities, limitations on harvesting and transportation timing, highly interconnected activities, residue handling, and the unknown, potential problems that might arise from operations of a biorefinery (see Section 2 for details). Only establishing the supporting logistics system, is it able to estimate initial capital investments, including those referring to incentives on long-term planting of dedicated energy plants, forming harvesting team by purchasing equipment and hiring employees, forming or contracting a transportation fleet, etc., so as to render assurances on investing hundreds of millions of dollars in new biorefinery projects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%