bioenergy crops

Link to the website with documentation and download instructions for the PNNL Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM), a community model or long-term, global energy, agriculture, land use, and emissions. BioEnergy production, transformation, and use is an integral part of GCAM modeling and scenarios.

http://jgcri.github.io/gcam-doc/

In 2013 a series of meetings was held across the US with each of the Sun Grant Regional Feedstock Partnership crop teams and the resource assessment team, led by the Oregon State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to review, standardize, and verify energy crop yield trials from 2007-2012 and assimilate their outcomes into a national model of biomass yield suitability. The meetings provided a way to “ground truth” yield estimates in order to accurately capture interactions of climate and soils for dedicated energy crops, including energycane, upland and lowland switchgrass, biomass sorghum, CRP grasses, hybrid poplar, willow, pine, and miscanthus x giganteus (in 2014). The verification of yield data included generating a standardized set of management assumptions for each crop and summarizing site potential yield according to the agreed cultural practices to establish, manage, and harvest each crop. From these sets of funded trials and historical data, yield was estimated across spatial gradients according to soil characteristics and climate history at a 2-week interval. The resulting national grids provide critical information for policymakers and planners of the potential productivity of these pre-commercial crops. This document summarizes the crop model and county-level results from the mapping activities (draft of document, July 31, 2014)

This document provides presentation style maps of potential crop yield of dedicated bioenergy crops from the publication "Productivity Potential of Bioenergy Crops from the Sun Grant Regional Feedstock Partnership." 2013. Eaton, Laurence, Chris Daly, Mike Halbleib, Vance Owens, Bryce Stokes. ORNL/TM-2013/574.

Abstract:
In 2013 a series of meetings was held across the US with each of the crop teams and the resource assessment team, led by the Oregon State University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, to review, standardize, and verify yield trials from 2007-2012 crop years and assimilate their outcomes into a national model of biomass yield suitability. The meetings provided a way to “ground truth” yield estimates in order to accurately capture interactions of climate and soils for dedicated energy crops, including switchgrass, energycane, biomass sorghum, CRP grasses, miscanthus x giganteus, hybrid poplar, willow, and pine. The verification of yield data included generating a standardized set of management assumptions for each crop and summarizing site potential yield according to the agreed cultural practices to establish, manage, and harvest each crop. From these sets of funded trials and historical data, yield was estimated across spatial gradients according to soil characteristics and climate history at a 2-week interval. The resulting national grids provide critical information for policymakers and planners of the potential productivity of these pre-commercial crops.

n the past decades, the production of biomass for energy in agriculture and forestry has increased in many parts of the world. For years to come, further increase in land use for bioenergy will be needed to meet the renewable energy ambitions of many countries, and to reduce fossil fuel use and associated GHG emissions. As many industrialized countries have a limited biomass production potential compared to their prospective demand, it is expected that substantial international bioenergy trade will develop in the coming decades where regions such as Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa will produce feedstocks for both domestic consumption and for export. Increasing the production and energetic use of biomass has many direct and indirect effects, including land-use related GHG emissions, impacts on biodiversity, and other environmental and social effects. However, while much of the recent years’ debate has concerned negative effects, it is important to note that bioenergy expansion can also lead to positive environmental and socio-economic outcomes.

This workshop aimed to bring together current state-of-the-art research concerned with assessing land use effects of bioenergy, mitigating negative impacts, and promoting beneficial outcomes.

In response to energy security concerns, alternative energy programs such as biomass energy systems are being
developed to provide energy in the 21st century. For the biomass industry to expand, a variety of feedstocks will need
to be utilized. Large scale production of bioenergy crops could have significant impacts on the United States agricultural
sector in terms of quantities, prices and production location of traditional crops as well as farm income. Though
a number of scenarios were examined to study the impact of bioenergy crop production on the agricultural sector, two
cropland scenarios are presented in this report. Under the wildlife management scenario, the analysis indicates that, at
$30/dry ton (dt) for switchgrass, $31.74/dt for willow and $32.90 for poplar, an estimated 19.4 million acres of
cropland (8.2 million from CRP) could be used to produce 96 million dry tons of bioenergy crops annually at a profit
greater than the profit created by existing uses for the land. In this scenario, traditional crop prices increase from 3
percent to 9 percent (depending on crop) and net farm income increases by $2.8 billion annually. At $40/dt of switchgrass,
$42.32/dt for willow and $43.87/dt for poplar and assuming the production management scenario, an estimated
41.9 million acres (12.9 million from CRP) could be used to produce 188 million dry tons of biomass annually. Under
this scenario, traditional crop prices increase by 8 to 14 percent and net farm income increases by $6 billion annually.