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Planting begins at 1,000 acre switchgrass farm; will provide feedstock for cellulosic ethanol

June 18, 2008

In Oklahoma, researchers have commenced planting on a 1,000 acre switchgrass farm that will produce feedstock for the Abengoa cellulosic ethanol demonstration facility in Hugoton, Kansas. Researchers from the Oklahoma Bioenergy Center, the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State said that they expect to harvest 30 percent of the crop in 2009, 780 percent in 2010, and a full harvest in 2011.

Switchgrass background

A research team at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory said that improvements in crop management and the planting of perennials such as switchgrass could ease hypoxia levels in the Gulf of Mexico, which has a 6,000 mile “death zone” west of the mouth of the Mississippi River. Nutrients from the Mississippi feed algae blooms that are consumed by oxygen-munching bacteria. The team said that construction and restoration of wetlands, reduced nitrogen and phosphorus limits, and improvements in riparian buffers are other methods that could reduce the size and impact of the death zone.

Detailed results from the five-year switchgrass study, that demonstrated average production costs of $60 per ton of biomass with a low of $39 per ton, are now available online. The complete USDA / U Nebraska-Lincoln study will be published in BioEnergy Research, but is available online here.

The report details a five-year, 10-farm study on switchgrass production. The research team determined that five farmers achieved average costs of $50 per ton for production, translating to a feedstock price of as little as 58 cents per gallon for switchgrass ethanol. The research team also found that greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 94 percent in switchgrass production, compared to gasoline emissions. Two farmers in the study, with previous experience growing switchgrass, achieved costs of $39 per ton in the five-year study, or 25 percent below the average for the group, indicating a potential to produce fuel at as low as 44 cents per gallon.

In Illinois, researchers at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign surveyed local farmers and report that the major challenge in developing cellulosic ethanol will be to persuade farmers to grow the crop. Farmers indicated in the survey that they would only grow cellulosic crops if they could be persuaded that the cellulosic crops such as switchgrass and miscanthus can compete with soybeans and corn in terms of profitability.

  • Miscanthus ethanol yields are 2-1/2 times corn in 3-year trial; switchgrass disappoints
    • A study that will be published in Global Change Biology reveals that miscanthus will produce up to two and a half times the per-acre ethanol yields as corn. In the same 3-year field trial, in Illinois...
  • Five-year study on switchgrass finds a 500 percent return on energy inputs; US cellulosic ethanol prospects receive a huge boost
    • In the first comprehensive report on the biofuel potential of switchgrass, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science says that switchgrass has a yield of more than fi...
  • Switchgrass fuel costs as low as 44 cents per gallon, says research team after five-year study
    • In Nebraska, a research team at the University of Nebraska released more details on a five-year, 10-farm study on switchgrass production. The research team determined that five farmers achieved averag...
  • Illinois researchers says farmers won’t switch to cellulosic feedstocks until more profitable than corn, soy
    • In Illinois, researchers at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign surveyed local farmers and report that the major challenge in developing cellulosic ethanol will be to persuade farmers to grow t...
  • Research projects 1000 gallons of ethanol per acre at less than $1 per gallon from poplar trees
    • In Washington state, a Washington State University researcher received a federal grant for his studies on converting poplar trees to ethanol.  Preliminary research showed yields of up to 1000 gallo...
  • Algae biofuel yields 154 times more miles per acre than soy biodiesel; solar is king, but as yet expensive
    • Miles per acre is the subject of an article at ecogeek on the productivity of various renewable energy sources. The article credited soybean biodiesel with a productivity of 2,400 miles per acre per y...

    Written by Jim Lane · Filed Under Producer News 

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