nsf.gov - National Science Foundation - Marginal Lands Are Prime Fuel Source for Alternative Energy

Lands unsuited for food crops represent huge untapped resource to grow mixed species biomass for ethanol.-

 

Bales of cellulosic biomass: Marginal lands may be a prime source for alternative energy.
Credit: Phil Robertson, MSU
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NSF's Long-Term Ecological Research Network comprises 26 land, coastal and ocean sites.
Credit: NSF LTER Network
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NSF KBS LTER site experimental plots: Corn and hybrid poplar are in the background.
Credit: Julie Doll, MSU
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Corn at the KBS LTER site: Corn currently dominates biofuel production in the U.S.
Credit: K. Stepnitz, MSU
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Researchers collect soil cores to determine carbon storage at the LTER site.
Credit: K. Stepnitz, MSU
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Satellite view of the cropping systems experiment: Each rectangle is 2.5 acres.
Credit: SPOT Image
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Marginal lands--those unsuited for food crops--can serve as prime real estate for meeting the nation's alternative energy production goals.

In the current issue of the journal Nature, scientists at Michigan State University (MSU) and other institutions show that marginal lands are a huge untapped resource for growing mixed-species cellulosic biomass.

These lands could annually produce up to 5.5 billion gallons of ethanol in the Midwest alone.

Cellulosic ethanol is a biofuel produced from wood, grasses or the inedible parts of plants.

"Understanding the environmental impact of widespread biofuel production is a major unanswered question in the U.S. and worldwide," said Ilya Gelfand, lead author of the paper.

"We estimate that using marginal lands for growing cellulosic biomass crops could provide up to 215 gallons of ethanol per acre with substantial greenhouse gas mitigation."

The notion of making better use of marginal lands has been around for nearly 15 years.

However, this is the first study to provide an estimate for greenhouse gas benefits, and an assessment of the total potential of these lands to produce significant amounts of biomass, Gelfand said.

Focusing on 10 midwestern states, researchers from MSU, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Maryland used 20 years of data from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site.

Kellogg Biological Station is one of 26 such NSF LTER sites in ecosystems around the world from grasslands to deserts, coral reefs to tundra.

"The study underscores the critical role that long-term basic research plays in determining the optimum balance between economic prosperity and environmental sustainability," said Saran Twombly, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology.

"Long-term basic experiments suggest that wise management of marginal lands, rather than wholesale conversion of valuable agricultural lands, could contribute significantly to a sustainable future," Twombly said.

The scientists characterized the comparative productivity and greenhouse gas impacts of different crops, including corn, poplar, alfalfa and old-field vegetation.

They then used a supercomputer to identify and model biomass production that could grow enough feedstock to support a local biorefinery with a capacity of at least 24 million gallons per year.

The final tally of 5.5 billion gallons of ethanol represents about 25 percent of Congress' 2022 cellulosic biofuels target, said Phil Robertson, co-author of the paper and director of the KBS LTER site.

"The value of marginal lands for energy production has been long-speculated and often discounted," he said.

"This research shows that these lands could make a major contribution to transportation energy needs, while providing substantial climate and--if managed properly--conservation benefits."

This is also the first study to demonstrate that grasses and other non-woody plants that grow naturally on unmanaged lands are sufficiently productive to make ethanol production worthwhile, he said.

Conservative numbers were used in the study, the scientists said, and production efficiency could be increased by carefully selecting the mix of plant species.

Additional benefits of using marginal lands include:

• New revenue for farmers and other land owners;
• No food-vs.-fuel conflict, as food production would not be displaced by fuel production;
• No indirect land-use effects, where land in another part of the globe is cleared to replace land lost to food production; and
• No carbon debt from land conversion, if existing vegetation is used or if new perennial crops are planted directly in existing vegetation.

The research was also funded by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center and MSU AgBioResearch.

-NSF-

Media Contacts Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734 cdybas@nsf.gov
Layne Cameron, MSU (765) 748-4827 layne.cameron@cabs.msu.edu

Related WebsitesNSF Long-Term Ecological Research Network: http://www.lternet.edu
NSF Kellogg Biological Station LTER Site: http://www.lternet.edu/sites/kbs
NSF News Release: Scientists Develop New Carbon Accounting Method to Reduce Farmers' Use of Nitrogen Fertilizer: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=123848
NSF LTER Discovery Articles Series: http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=125511&org=NSF

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2012, its budget is $7.0 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives over 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards nearly $420 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

 Get News Updates by Email 

Useful NSF Web Sites:
NSF Home Page: http://www.nsf.gov
NSF News: http://www.nsf.gov/news/
For the News Media: http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp
Science and Engineering Statistics: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/
Awards Searches: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

The National Science Foundation (NSF) .-

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

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Agriculture: Scientists Develop New Carbon Accounting Method to Reduce Farmers' Use of Nitrogen Fertilizer

Hi My Friends: A VUELO DE UN QUINDE EL BLOG., t's summer. For many of us, summer is a time synonymous with fresh corn, one of the major field crops produced in the United States.

Agricultural crops are studied in experiments at NSF's Kellogg Biological Station LTER site.

Credit: Julie Doll, NSF KBS LTER Site

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Dawn breaks over fields, some fertilized, some not, at the KBS site.

Credit: Julie Doll, NSF KBS LTER Site

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Where does nitrogen fertilizer go? Studies of crops hold answers.

Credit: Julie Doll, NSF KBS LTER Site

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 Scientists Develop New Carbon Accounting Method to Reduce Farmers' Use of Nitrogen Fertilizer

Large amounts of nitrogen fertilizer lead to nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas, in the atmosphere

It's summer. For many of us, summer is a time synonymous with fresh corn, one of the major field crops produced in the United States.

In 2011, corn was planted on more than 92 million acres in the U.S., helping the nation continue its trend as the world's largest exporter of the crop.

Corn is a nitrogen-loving plant. To achieve desired production levels, most U.S. farmers apply synthetic nitrogen fertilizer to their fields every year.

Once nitrogen fertilizer hits the ground, however, it's hard to contain and is easily lost to groundwater, rivers, oceans and the atmosphere.

"That's not good for the crops, the farmers or the environment," says Phil Robertson, a scientist at Michigan State University and principal investigator at the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site.

KBS is one of 26 such NSF LTER sites across the United States and around the globe in ecosystems from forests to coral reefs.

Nitrogen lost to the environment from agricultural fields is nitrogen not used by crops, Robertson says. "This costs farmers money and degrades water and air quality, with significant health, biodiversity and downstream economic effects."

Farmers already manage fertilizer to avoid large losses. But, to reduce losses further, it currently costs more money than the fertilizer saves.

Robertson and colleagues are working on a way to help make the time and expense of efforts to mitigate fertilizer loss worthwhile. They're putting the finishing touches on a program that would pay farmers to apply less nitrogen fertilizer in a way that doesn't jeopardize yields. The program, called the nitrous oxide greenhouse gas reduction methodology, is being conducted in partnership with the Electric Power Research Institute.

"This project is a great example of how long-term, fundamental research can contribute practical solutions to important environmental problems of concern in the U.S.--and ultimately around the world," says Matt Kane, an NSF program director for LTER.

In the United States, agriculture accounts for almost 70 percent of all nitrous oxide emissions linked with human activity. Nitrous oxide is one of the major gases contributing to human-induced climate change; it has a lifetime in the atmosphere of more than 100 years. In addition, a molecule of nitrous oxide has more than 300 times the heat-trapping effect in the atmosphere as a molecule of carbon dioxide.

In soils, the production of nitrous oxide through microbial activity is a natural process. By applying large amounts of fertilizer, however, humans have greatly increased the amount of nitrous oxide in soils. This is particularly true when nitrogen fertilizer is added in larger amounts than the crop needs, and when it is applied at times or in ways that make it difficult for the crop to get the full benefit.

"Improving the efficiency of nitrogen use for field crop agriculture holds great promise for helping mitigate climate change," Robertson says.

The nitrous oxide greenhouse gas reduction methodology, which is a way for farmers to participate in existing and emerging carbon markets, recently was approved by the American Carbon Registry and is in its final stages of validation by the Verified Carbon Standard--two carbon market standards that operate worldwide.

When farmers reduce their nitrogen fertilizer use, they can use the methodology as a means of generating carbon credits. These credits can be traded in carbon markets for financial payments.

The scientific underpinning for the methodology rests on decades of research Robertson and colleagues have conducted at the KBS LTER site.

"By closely following nitrous oxide, crop yields and other ecosystem responses to fertilizers," Robertson says, "we discovered that nitrous oxide emissions increase exponentially and consistently with increasing nitrogen fertilizer use."

The idea of the methodology is to offer ways of using less fertilizer to produce crops. But if farmers apply less fertilizer, will their crop production take a hit?

"Carbon credits provide an incentive to apply fertilizer more precisely, not to reduce yields," says Robertson. "If yields were reduced significantly, the climate effect would be nil because a farmer somewhere else would have to use more nitrogen to make up the yield loss, thereby generating more nitrous oxide."

The new methodology developed at NSF's KBS LTER site was successfully used by a Michigan farmer in Tuscola County as part of a proof-of-concept project.

"A major value of the approach is that it is straightforward to understand and implement," says KBS LTER scientist Neville Millar, who co-led development of the methodology.

In addition to providing an economic incentive, the methodology is a tool farmers can apply to enhance their land stewardship.

"The same strategies that farmers can use to minimize nitrous oxide loss will act to reduce the loss of nitrate to groundwater and loss of other forms of nitrogen to the atmosphere," says Millar.

Adam Diamant, technical executive at the Electric Power Research Institute and a co-developer of the methodology, says the new approach resulted in a "quadruple win: for farmers, for industrial organizations that may be required to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, for the atmosphere and for water quality from the upper Midwest all the way to the Gulf of Mexico."

Adds Robertson: "We're in uncharted territory with a growing global human population and unprecedented environmental change.

"Performing the research that links environmental benefits to environmental markets, without compromising crop yields, is crucial for feeding more people while sustaining Earth's ecosystems."

-NSF-

Media Contacts Cheryl Dybas, NSF (703) 292-7734 cdybas@nsf.gov

Related WebsitesNSF LTER Network: http://www.lternet.edu
NSF Kellogg Biological Station LTER Site: http://lter.kbs.msu.edu/

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2012, its budget is $7.0 billion. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to nearly 2,000 colleges, universities and other institutions. Each year, NSF receives over 50,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes about 11,000 new funding awards. NSF also awards nearly $420 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

 Get News Updates by Email 
Useful NSF Web Sites:
NSF Home Page: http://www.nsf.gov
NSF News: http://www.nsf.gov/news/
For the News Media: http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsroom.jsp
Science and Engineering Statistics: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/
Awards Searches: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com 

ayabaca@hotmail.com 

ayabaca@yahoo.com

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