Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest

Gelfand, Ilya; Sahajpal, Ritvik; Zhang, Xuesong; Izaurralde, R. C.; Gross, Katherine L.; Robertson, G. Philip

doi:10.1038/nature11811

Cited by 635 publications

(633 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Particularly, low-management input woody and grassy perennial systems on degraded lands and on lands not suitable for food crops are regions to further promote biomass production. This includes monoculture crops such as Miscanthus or switchgrass and mixtures of native grasses that are best suited to impoverished soils and that have the capacity to improve soil condition and carbon content [45][46][47] . Sustainable deployment of these activities requires attention to the potential of high biodiversity value of some marginal lands.…”

Section: Nature Communications | Doimentioning

confidence: 99%

Global potential of biospheric carbon management for climate mitigation

2014

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Elevated concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs), particularly carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), have affected the global climate. Land-based biological carbon mitigation strategies are considered an important and viable pathway towards climate stabilization. However, to satisfy the growing demands for food, wood products, energy, climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation-all of which compete for increasingly limited quantities of biomass and land-the deployment of mitigation strategies must be driven by sustainable and integrated land management. If executed accordingly, through avoided emissions and carbon sequestration, biological carbon and bioenergy mitigation could save up to 38 billion tonnes of carbon and 3-8% of estimated energy consumption, respectively, by 2050.P otential pathways to climate stabilization require the deployment of a broad portfolio of solutions to increase energy efficiency, replace fossil fuel use and remove GHGs. The technological solutions available to address these challenges can be broadly divided into two camps: (1) non-biological solutions that do not involve the biosphere, such as wind and solar farms for the generation of electricity and (2) biological solutions that do involve biospheric components of the natural and managed carbon cycle, such as bioenergy or reforestation. Biological solutions are distinctive in at least two ways. First, large terrestrial and ocean carbon sinks (reservoirs that accumulate and store carbon) already exist and remove more than half of the annual anthropogenic CO 2 emissions from the atmosphere 1,2 . Thus, understanding and management of the dynamics of these sinks is of paramount importance. Second, most biological mitigation activities require additional harvesting of the Earth's plant production (that is, net primary production) beyond its current 38% use 3 . However, these requirements face the limitation that a third of the terrestrial plant production is belowground, which is not economically harvestable, and another third takes place on difficult or remote terrain. Thus, there is a clear natural limit to the global fraction further available for human exploitation. Only 10% of the land surface, equivalent to 5 PgC per year (petagrams of carbon per year ¼ 10 15 g ¼ a billion metric tonne) 3 , remains. There is a need to exploit a larger fraction of biomass production for the purpose of climate change mitigation that would place this goal in direct competition with the agendas of food security, energy security and often biodiversity conservation 4 , all of which also require increasing quantities of biomass and land to meet their goals (Fig. 1). In addition, an emerging bio-economy intending to replace many of the petroleum-based products by plant-based products 5,6 will put further demands on biomass production.New technologies will contribute to improving the sustainable production and conversion of biomass for a range of food, fibre, energy, health and industrial products. However, with new demands, there will also be unprece...

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Section: Nature Communications | Doimentioning

confidence: 99%

Global potential of biospheric carbon management for climate mitigation

2014

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“…Second-generation biofuels (SGB) are fuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass. Production of SGBs circumvents several of the negative outcomes associated with FGBs [10]. At present, the development of competitive SGB products is at various stages of research and pilot demonstrations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Environmental Factors and Nutrient Availability on the Biochemical Composition of Algae for Biofuels Production: A Review

2013

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Due to significant lipid and carbohydrate production as well as other useful properties such as high production of useful biomolecular substrates (e.g., lipids) and the ability to grow using non-potable water sources, algae are being explored as a potential high-yield feedstock for biofuels production. In both natural and engineered systems, algae can be exposed to a variety of environmental conditions that affect growth rate and cellular composition. With respect to the latter, the amount of carbon fixed in lipids and carbohydrates (e.g., starch) is highly influenced by environmental factors and nutrient availability. Understanding synergistic interactions between multiple environmental variables and nutritional factors is required to develop sustainable high productivity bioalgae systems, which are essential for commercial biofuel production. This article reviews the effects of environmental factors (i.e., temperature, light and pH) and nutrient availability (e.g., carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and trace metals) as well as cross-interactions on the biochemical composition of algae with a special focus on carbon fixation and partitioning of carbon from a biofuels perspective.

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“…Research on switchgrass growth on marginal land may provide evidence of potential switchgrass yields on mined lands. Marginal lands are those with low crop production potential due to inherent soil or climatic limitations or because they are located in areas that are difficult to seed or vulnerable to erosion [6]. Schmer et al [17] measured annual average biomass yields of 5.2 to 11.1 Mg ha −1 of switchgrass when managed as a biomass energy crop on marginal cropland in the northern Great Plains, USA.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Switchgrass Biofuel Production on Reclaimed Surface Mines: I. Soil Quality and Dry Matter Yield

Brown

Griggs

Keene³

et al. 2015

Bioenerg. Res.

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Growing food crops for biofuel on productive agricultural lands may become less viable as requirements to feed a growing human population increase. This has increased interest in growing cellulosic biofuel feedstocks on marginal lands. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), a warm-season perennial, is a viable bioenergy crop candidate because it produces high yields on marginal lands under low fertility conditions. In other studies, switchgrass dry matter (DM) yields on marginal croplands varied from 5.0 to 10.0 Mg ha −1 annually. West Virginia contains immense areas of reclaimed surface mined lands that could support a switchgrass-based biofuel industry, but yield data on these lands are lacking. Field experiments were established in 2008 to determine yields of three switchgrass cultivars on two West Virginia mine sites. One site reclaimed with topsoil and municipal sludge produced biomass yields of 19.0 Mg DM ha −1 for Cave-inRock switchgrass after the sixth year, almost double the varieties Shawnee and Carthage, at 10.0 and 5.7 Mg ha −1 , respectively. Switchgrass yields on another site with no topsoil were 1.0 Mg ha −1 after the sixth year, with little variation among cultivars. A second experiment was conducted at two other mine sites with a layer of topsoil over gray overburden. Cavein-Rock was seeded with fertilizer applications of 0, 34, and 68 kg N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O ha −1 . After the third year, the no fertilizer treatment averaged biomass yields of 0.3 Mg ha −1 , while responses to the other two rates averaged 1.1 and 2.0 Mg ha −1 , respectively. Fertilization significantly increased yields on reclaimed mine soils. Where mine soil fertility was good, yields were similar to those reported on agricultural soils in the Northeastern USA.

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Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest

Cited by 635 publications

References 45 publications

Global potential of biospheric carbon management for climate mitigation

Global potential of biospheric carbon management for climate mitigation

Effects of Environmental Factors and Nutrient Availability on the Biochemical Composition of Algae for Biofuels Production: A Review

Switchgrass Biofuel Production on Reclaimed Surface Mines: I. Soil Quality and Dry Matter Yield

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