Agricultural Biomass

1
Agricultural Biomass
Resources
Soil Water Quality Improvement
Potential Resources
Health Benefits

• Resources, Opportunities, and Constraints
• Presentation to the Western Governors
  Association
• Clean and Diversified Energy Advisory Committee
• Biomass Task Force
• April 14-15, 2005
• Denver, Colorado

2
Agriculturally-based Biomass Resources and
Technologically Viable End-uses

• Prominent National Resources End-Uses
• herbaceous energy crops
• switchgrass and big bluestem bioethanol,
  heat, and electricity
• agricultural crop residues
• corn stover, wheat, barley, and oat straw
  bioethanol
• oilseed crops
• soybeans, sunflower, canola/rapeseed,
  perennial oilseeds biodiesel
• agribusiness processing residues
• edible and inedible tallows and waste greases,
  walnut shells, potato wastes biodiesel, heat,
  bioethanol
• livestock manures
• dairy and swine operations heat and
  electricity
• other
• biochemicals and biomaterials

3
Advantages of Agriculturally-based Biomass
Resources

• Energy
• utilization of sustainable resources
  sustainable energy balance
• Environmental
• decreased CO2, SOx, and mercury emissions
• improved localized air quality
• improved water quality
• potential for carbon sequestration
• Economic
• improvement of foreign trade balance
• Security
• decreased petroleum dependence

4
Environmental Advantages of Herbaceous Energy
Crops

• Rainfall and wind soil erosion reduction
• Herbaceous energy crops provide excellent
• continuous cover significantly reducing
• surface rainfall impact and wind forces
• Surface runoff reduction
• Herbaceous energy crops have extensive
• root systems allowing for greater
  infiltration
• (decreased risk of flooding)
• Nitrogen and agricultural chemical mitigation
• Herbaceous energy crops use less nitrogen,
• phosphorus, and agricultural chemicals than
• conventional commodity crops
• Increased soil organic carbon
• Extensive root system of switchgrass allows for
  carbon sequestration
• Switchgrass for renewable energy purposes
  provides a psuedo closed-carbon loop ?
  significant reduction in the greenhouse gas CO2
• Restoration of marginal lands

Marginal Lands in Need of Restoration
Topsoil Completely Eroded from Rainfall Erosion
5
Perennial Oilseed Crop Systems

• Many factors that disqualify land for annual
  cropping
• may not apply to perennial crops!
• Environmental Advantages of Perennial Oilseed
  Production
• Exposure to wind and water erosion occurs
  primarily during establishment of annual crops is
  minimized with perennials
• Perennials can provide N fixation, decrease in
  rainfall erosion impact, and provide windbreaks
• Perennial oilseeds could reduce NPS pollution
  while also providing a return to the landowner
  through alternative energy production
  (double-benefit)
• Energetic Advantages of Perennial Oilseed
  Production
• Since the living plant, instead of the processing
  plant, adds the energy benefit, the energy ratio
  (ER) will be higher

Castor (SW KS TX)
Chinese Tallow Tree
6
Agricultural Crop Residue RemovalSustainability
Considerations
Corn Stover seen as a waste resource

• Residue Required for Erosion Control is a
  function of
• Type of Erosion (wind or rainfall (water))
• Field management practices (tillage)
• Soil type
• Climate (rainfall, temperature, retained
  moisture)
• Physical field characteristics ( slope,
• soil erodibility)
• Crop and cropping rotation
• Tolerable Soil Loss, T
• Grain yield (bu/ac)
• Tolerable Soil Loss, T
• Maximum rate of soil erosion that will not lead
  to prolonged soil deterioration and/or loss of
  productivity

Rotation Field Topology
Soil Tilth Carbon Constraints !!!
Field Management
7
ConstraintsAgricultural Biomass Resource
Production Issues

• Land Resource
• arable versus non-arable crops production
• competing uses and cost/benefit
• Environmental Concerns
• production versus soil quality (soil erosion)
• water quality
• water resource
• soil tilth carbon cycle
• Quantity of Sustainable Resource
• Others?

8
Potential Renewable Energy and Environmental/Pollu
tion Credit Markets for Agriculturally-based
Biomass Resources

• Renewable Energy Credits and Environmental/Polluti
  on Trading Markets
• Sale of end-use energies derived from bioenergy
• Air emission credits for CO2, SOx, NOx, mercury
• Water quality/pollution trading (sediment,
  nutrient and chemical savings)