making fuel from forages ryan lock (in for the hawaiian vacationing) robert kallenbach division of...
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Making Fuel from Forages
Ryan Lock(in for the Hawaiian vacationing) Robert Kallenbach
Division of Plant Sciences
The epitome of forage based fuels
Biomass Sugar PlatformPre-distillation
Biomass
Digest with Detergent Solution
Cell Contents
(Protein, Starch, Sugars, Organic Acids,
Pectin)
Hemicellulose, Cellulose and
Lignin
Digest with Acid
Hemicellulose
Ferment with Enzyme
Fructans and Glucose
Cellulose and Lignin
Ferment with Cellulase
Glucose
Lignin
Agriculture has some decisions to make
• Energy independence• Value added crops
– Competition for commodities– Interesting times for Price discovery
• My background is old school– Cattle/forages/feedCRP acres show promise as a buffer (Average $50/acre,
currently)
Recent Biofuel research at Mizzou
• Switchgrass– Cooperative project with 8 other states
• Cool-season CRP and CRP renovation with legumes and Switchgrass– Cooperative project with 4 other states
Big challenges require teamwork
Latitudinal and Longitudinal Adaptation of Switchgrass Populations
M. D. Caslera,*, K. P. Vogelb, C. M. Taliaferroc, N. J. Ehlked, J. D. Berdahle, E. C. Brummerf, R. L. Kallenbachg, C. P. Westh and R. B. Mitchellb
Crop Sci 47:2249-2260 (2007)
MU Switchgrass data
Take home messages:
Not all varieties of switchgrass are created equal
A variety should not be grown more than 1 hardiness zone away from its ancestral origin
Cave-in-Rock most widely adapted to migration
Switchgrass dominated warm-season mixture, OK
Tall wheatgrass dominated cool-season mixture with legume, MT
Switchgrass dominated warm-season mixture, ND
Switchgrass dominated warm-season mixture with legume, KA
Tall fescue dominated cool-season mixture with two-cut system, MO
MU cool-season CRP data
• Yields not tremendous• Next logical step – Integrate Switchgrass to beef up yields– legumes to provide N• Yellow sweetclover• Switchgrass• Binary mixture• w/without glyphosate to establish
MU cool-season CRP data
Challenges• Production– Mandates
– Approx. 16 Billion gallons of ethanol from biomass– At 100 gallons per ton conversion efficiency = 160
Million tons of biomass needed– At an ave. yield of 5 t/a we need 32 million acres – A typical 50 Million gallon/yr plant would need
500,000 tons of cellulosic materials – about 1 million big round bales
Year Billion gallons2013 16.52015 20.52020 30.02022 36.0
Challenges• Transport – about 4 times higher for biomass than grains
– Corn 44 lb/ft3
– Biomass 10 to 12 lb/ft3
• Storage - where do you keep 1 million bales without having them deteriorate?
• Outside storage helps?
Enough to fill Memorial Stadium level full with bales 5 times
Challenges
• Economic benefit to producers – – Current prices for a great deal of biomass greater as forage than
fuel– Most cellulosic models built on $35-45/ton feedstock– Higher fuel prices would improve feedstock value
• Fertilizer costs for N-P-K– $40/T for cool-season crp– $25/T for switchgrass
• Organic matter– losses from removing crop residues– gains under crp w/switchgrass (2.4 and 4 Mg/ha)– N rate dependant (Lee et al., Agron. J. 99:462–468 (2007)).