SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: WERA1016 : Adaptation, Quality and Management of Sustainable Cellulosic Biofuel Crops in the West
- Period Covered: 10/01/2011 to 09/01/2012
- Date of Report: 11/26/2012
- Annual Meeting Dates: 08/06/2012 to 08/08/2012
Participants
Attendees to WERA 1016 August 6-8, 2012<p> Members<p>; Berti, Marisol, associate professor, Plant Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND; Girisha Gagejunte, Texas A&M University, El Paso, TX; Howe, Daniel, PNNL, Richland, WA; Shewmaker, Glenn, University of Idaho, Twin Falls, ID; Sparrow, Stephen, University of Alaska, Fairbanks; Thelen, Kurt, Michigan State University<p> Other attendees<p>; Aponte, Alfredo, PhD. student Plant Sciences, NDSU, Fargo; Ji, Yun, assistant professor, Dept. Chemical engineering, UND, Grand Forks; Li, Yinbao, post doc, Chemical engineering, UND, Grand Forks; Kamereddy, Reddy, PhD. Students, Chemical engineering; Kandel, Hans. Extension crop production, Plant Sciences, NDSU, Fargo, ND; Maung, Thein, Research assistant professor, Agribusiness & Applied Economy, NDSU, Fargo; Orak, Adnan, Visiting professor, Namik Kemal University, Turkey; Ripplinger, David, Research assistant professor, Agribusiness & Applied Economy, NDSU, Fargo; Samarappuli, Dulan, MS student, Plant Sciences, NDSU, Fargo, NDSU; Saxowsky, David, associate professor, Agribusiness & Applied Economy, NDSU, Fargo; Osvaldo Teuber, PhD. Student, Plant Sciences, NDSU, Fargo, ND
The annual meeting was conducted from August 6-8, 2012 and was hosted by Marisol Berti at North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND. Six members of the committee representing six different states attended the meeting. Also other researchers and students from North Dakota State University (NDSU) and University of North Dakota (UND) joined us in the meeting and field tour increasing the attendance to 17.
The meeting started with a presentation from the Chair from the Department of Plant Sciences Dr. Horsley. After that Dr. Marisol Berti presented the advances in biomass research in the state of North Dakota. All committee members presented a 30 minutes summary of their research on biomass crops production or conversion. We had a field tour on Tuesday to the North Dakota State University Fargo and Prosper Experimental Stations. Among the crops shown on the tour were forage sorghum, switchgrass, miscanthus, cool-season grasses in mixtures with alfalfa, cover crops use for bioenergy crops, forage brassicas for forage and energy, and winter camelina-forage sorghum double and relay-cropping systems.
The meeting ended with a business meeting where an interesting discussion of the future plans for this group took place and also the possibilities of developing a proposal template in biomass crop production for the committee to be prepared ahead of time to apply for funding for bioenergy crops research in the Western states when the opportunities arise.
Minutes of Business Meeting Section
August 8, 2012
Attendees:
Marisol Berti, Girisha Ganjegunte, Daniel Howe, Glenn Shewmaker, Stephen Sparrow, Kurt Thelen, David Saxowsky, David Ripplinger, Thein Maung.
The goals for this meeting were to develop collaborative efforts among the Western States on research and outreach in cellulosic biomass feedstock production and use in the West, to develop plans for the next WERA 1016 meeting, and elect officers for the coming year.
We discussed future activities for the WERA 1016 group and decided we need activities other than just annual meetings. As such, we decided a major effort should be put into seeking grant funds to support collaborative research and outreach efforts among members of the group and others. We did this because we recognize that we can gain synergism from collaborative efforts among different states in the West and that funding efforts are likely to be more successful for multi-state and multi-disciplinary proposals. With that in mind, we decided we need to know what the opportunities and obstacles for successful cellulosic biofuel production and uses are in the West and that we need a set of defined objectives around which to build proposals.
The group decided we should work on developing a proposal template rather than a specific proposal so as to be poised to write proposals tailored to specific request for proposals when opportunities arise. We discussed developing a white paper on opportunities for biomass production in the western states which could serve as a spring board for developing a proposal template, although we decide to start building the proposal template first. The group also decided we should not focus on any particular biomass crop species since different crops are adapted to different soils and climates in the West and since bio-refineries are not likely to rely on a single crop. We also discussed and agreed we should seek industry support, in part because having such support will likely increase the probability of success with grants but also could be a way to garner funding. The group discussed what portions of the biomass energy chain should be included and decided that while the focus should be on sustainable feedstock production, we should also include harvest, pre-treatment and storage, transportation, and conversion and that life-cycle analyses should be part of any proposal we put forward.
The groups decided the proposal template outline should include nine main topics (but emphasis could vary somewhat depending on RFP). The nine topics are:
1. Resources (e.g. soils, water, climate, including opportunities for use of marginal resources such as marginal land, waste water).
2. Sustainable cellulosic feedstock production (specific crops and production practices may vary across sub-regions within the West).
3. Pre-treatment (e.g. densification, torrefaction)
4. Transportation and logistics
5. Conversion (emphasis on transportation fuels, use of waste products such a lignin, and other chemicals)
6. Economics
7. Life-cycle analysis
8. Social and rural development
9. Enabling technologies
We also agreed that each proposal should have an education/outreach component, and a commercialization component.
Kurt Thelen shared a list obstacles to bioenergy cropping systems which was developed from a survey of agronomist in central U.S. (attached as appendix) which we agreed will be useful as a starting point for developing ideas for the body of a proposal template.
David Saxowsky suggested that the coordinator of the proposal template not necessarily had to be the principal investigator of the proposal when the opportunity arises. Then, Marisol Berti volunteered to get the proposal template going and seek for information from the group to complete it.
The group discussed and agreed we should develop and maintain a website for WERA1016 Marisol Berti volunteered to host the website at NDSU but in further inquiry about it, we might be able to use the already in place NIMMS website where we can upload information and documents. We also agreed the secretary should periodically send out an e-mail message to members for updates on relevant activities to be included in an occasional newsletter and/or the website.
Glenn Shewmaker agreed to host the 2013 WERA 1016 meeting in Idaho, most likely in Idaho Falls, which is where the Idaho National Laboratory is located. We also agreed to tentatively plan the 2014 meeting to be in Alaska (hosted by Steve Sparrow) and the 2015 meeting to be in Texas (hosted by Girisha Ganjegunte).
Officers for the coming year are:
Glenn Shewmaker, chair
Marisol Berti, past-chair
Stephen Sparrow, chair-elect
Girisha Ganjegunte, secretary
Individual Project Reports can found on the WERA-1016 Homepage under the tab "Additional Documents" at the following link:
http://lgu.umd.edu/lgu_v2/homepages/home.cfm?trackID=12416
Accomplishments
The question was: What do you see as the top two challenges associated with establishing bioenergy crops on the agricultural landscape?
Agronomics of integrating bioenergy crops with conventional crops
- Nutrient removal from a misconception that some biofuel crops dont need fertilizer.
- Evolution of unknown pest problems.
- Lack of temporal flexibility- with high costs of establishment and issues (costs) of termination, perennial biomass crops reduce cropping system flexibility.
- Unknown effects possibly negative, of perennial crops on successive annual crops. Might include water depletion, nutrient redistribution.
- Logistics of adoption from row crop production.
- Scale bioenergy crops best fit into niches within the landscape yet the scale of processing push towards 100% of landscape.
- Agronomic of bioenergy crops; fertility, pest mgt, weed science.
- Integration into existing annual cropping systems.
Storage and handling of bioenergy crops
- Transportation of low energy biomass.
- Material handling logistics.
- Storage & handling & transportation issues.
- Handling material after harvest.
- Harvesting biomass in a storable form.
WSPG lag period to peak yields
- Lag period for perennial warm season grasses to hit max yield.
- Lag period to peak biomass in wspg.
Environmental/Sustainability
- Soil organic matter for sustainable production systems.
- Soil erosion/stability/structure.
- Time and energy to establish cover crops to alleviate SOM, soil stability.
- Yield and environmental aspects of marginal land use.
Food vs. fuel
- Market competition with food.
- Reduction of crop land dedicated to food production.
Marketing/Economics
- Fluctuations in fuel prices.
- Marketing, who will take bioenergy crops.
- Marketing flexibility of biomass.
- Chicken vs egg argument. e.g. canola crushing plant; build biorefinery first or plant crops.
Impacts
- The work conducted by the WERA-1016 group, when completed, will provide U.S. growers with information necessary to produce cellulosic bioenergy crops at the quantity and quality necessitated by US Energy Policy Act of 2007 (Renewable Fuel Standard).