Trader’s Dispatch, November 2012 — Page B15
ARS and the regional biomass research centers
By Ann Perry and J. Kim Kaplan Agricultural Research Service Information Staff In 2010, U.S. Department of Agriculture invasive eastern red cedar, pinion pine, and ended in 2002, USDA continued its support Secretary Tom Vilsack created five Rewestern juniper to restore degraded rangeof the research. gional Biomass Research Centers to help lands; use of insect-, fire-, or disease-killed In the initial studies, Vogel and his colmake the most of existing USDA research wood and areas at high risk of damage or leagues established a test plot in each of resources. A commitment to research is loss; sustainable productivity and residue three states—Indiana, Iowa, and Nebrasnecessary to help establish a successful removal; economics of in-woods pyrolysis ka—to evaluate almost all the available bioenergy industry in different parts of and biochar and assessment of ecological cultivars and elite strains of switchgrass. the country through the development of outcomes; and the logistics and costs of Their results showed that it was possible dependable supplies of feedstocks for handling and transportation. to develop switchgrass cultivars with high advanced biofuels production. A regional Northwestern Regional Center: This biomass yields that could be successfully approach to feedstock production will help center’s oilseed crop efforts are coordinated grown across a broad geographic region. enable broad participation by many rural with those of the Western Regional Center, They also found that existing switchgrass areas across the country in the emerging with an emphasis on integrating expanded cultivars developed for forage had the pobiofuels and biobased-products economy. oilseed production and minimizing its tential to produce biomass that could yield In particular, the regional biomass centers impact on existing wheat-based producmore than 500 gallons of ethanol per acre. organize USDA’s Agricultural Research tion systems. The center is also focused on Vogel’s team evaluated switchgrass Service (ARS) and Forest Service bioenrestoration of western rangelands through germplasm from Midwest prairies and ergy research into a structure that fosters harvest and removal of invasive western identified cultivars and germplasm with collaboration among researchers along the juniper and pinion pine trees. The woody the most promising traits for bioenergy. complete bioenergy-production continuum. biomass emphasis is on wood utilization; Then they used that information to conduct The five USDA Regional Biomass Repoplar genomics, genetics, and short rotagenetic studies to obtain information for search Centers serve to complement and tion management; forest resource supply improving breeding methods and develcoordinate ARS and Forest Service research and characterization; production standards oping hybrid cultivars, including the first across the country to help accelerate the for sustainable forest management systems; molecular genetic studies on switchgrass. establishment of commercial, region-based alternative energy policy evaluation; and Results from a later, 5-year, multi-state, biofuel supply chains based on agricultural economic feasibility of feedstock supply on-farm study demonstrated that the amount and forestry-based feedstocks. The centers alternatives. of energy contained in cellulosic ethanol are networks of existing ARS and Forest Central-East Regional Center: For this produced from switchgrass was five times Service facilities and scientists in locations center, the main research focus is on the degreater than the amount of energy needed to across the country. velopment of perennial grasses and biomass grow, harvest, and process the crop into celNorthern-East Regional Center: This sorghum, along with significant coordinalulosic ethanol. In addition, the greenhouse center is coordinated by the Forest Service tion of research on corn grain ethanol and gas emissions from producing cellulosic Research and Development and focuses on corn stover cellulosic biomass. Emphasis ethanol from switchgrass were 94 percent production of woody biomass for biofuels, is on integrating dedicated feedstock prolower than estimated greenhouse gas emiswith research directed at screening for suduction into central-eastern agricultural sions from gasoline production. Assuming perior traits; short-rotation woody crops; production systems to enhance water and that switchgrass could be produced for $50 sustainable management systems, includair quality and to minimize the adverse afper ton with a conversion efficiency of 80 ing forest health and conventional forest fects of bioenergy on existing agricultural to 90 gallons per ton of feedstock, Vogel’s operations; life-cycle analysis; quantifying markets. team estimated the farmgate production sustainable supply and demand; converAs with all of the other centers, there costs of cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass sion of woody biomass to advanced fuels is an emphasis on the need to increase would be about $0.55 to $0.62 per gallon. and coproducts; and design of biofuels and system efficiency through introduction of The Central-East team also developed coproduct deployment. nitrogen-fixing plants such as alfalfa and the first near-infrared sensing (NIRS) Southeastern Regional Center: The other legumes. Integration of perennial method to measure 20 components in highest priority research need for the grass feedstocks into these systems may be switchgrass—including cell wall sugars, Southeastern region is the development of a way to help reduce nutrient escape from soluble sugars, and lignin—that determine superior performing herbaceous feedstocks: fields to surface and ground waters and its potential value as a biofuel feedstock. energy cane; biomass sorghum, including to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and Using NIRS, they tested switchgrass vasweet sorghum; other subtropical/tropical increase carbon sequestration. rieties and experimental lines and found perennial grasses, such as napiergrass; and Geneticist Ken Vogel at the ARS Grain, significant differences in the amount of purpose-grown woody biomass. There is Forage, and Bioenergy Research Unit in ethanol that can be produced using current also a need to identify the best strategies Lincoln, Nebraska, who also serves as technologies and the amount that could be to incorporate dedicated biomass crops into coordinator for the Central-East Regional produced when technology is available for existing annual row crop, pasture, agroforCenter, is no stranger to bioenergy research. commercial-scale conversion of the plant estry, and forest-based systems, as well as When Vogel started his switchgrass resugars. This was calculated as actual and to develop long-term strategies for using search in the 1970s, he focused on improvpotential ethanol yield per ton and per acre. perennial energy grasses to meet the needs ing both the quality of livestock forages and Results indicated that NIRS could estimate of emerging advanced-biofuel-producing the establishment of forages on pastures. ethanol yields of switchgrass for about $5 a facilities in the region. But by 1990, he began developing switchsample; other methods cost anywhere from Western Regional Center: With the grass as a biomass energy crop, sparked in $300 to $2,000 per sample. relatively low precipitation in much of the part by interest and support from the U.S. Other research at Lincoln has resulted western United States, the Western RegionDepartment of Energy (DOE). in new information on how switchgrass al Center’s feedstock research focuses on “Switchgrass was already being grown and ethanol yields are affected by nitrogen the development of new industrial oilseed on land that was part of the Conservation fertility, harvest management, herbicide crops. Oilseed crop research is conducted in Reserve Program [CRP], and farmers were tolerance, stand establishment, and mycorconjunction with research at the Northwestreceiving CRP payments, but the land was rhizae—organisms in the soil that mediate ern Regional Center and includes genomic not producing any marketable products and nutrient and water uptake. Vogel’s team has modifications to optimize fatty acid genes new revenue,” says Vogel. “I wanted to see used this information to develop a basic set and breed new oilseed cultivars, characterif we could grow a crop on CRP land that of management guidelines and cultivars for izations of germplasm collections to idenwould generate income and address U.S. large-scale production of switchgrass as a tify new feedstock types, and population energy needs.” biomass energy crop in the Central Great phenotyping. New cropping systems are Vogel worked with Oak Ridge National Plains and the Midwest. needed that fit specific local and regional Laboratory staff on a series of interagency “It’s satisfying to see lots of people workniches for available resources and economic agreements that provided funding for deing on switchgrass as a bioenergy crop,” development, especially under limited waveloping switchgrass into a biomass energy Vogel says. “We’re getting much closer to ter availability. Woody biomass research crop for the Central Great Plains and the the point where it will be a viable feedstock efforts include management and use of Midwest. After the initial DOE funding that helps meet our energy needs.”