Iowa State Receives $200,000 Grant to Develop Biomass Crops in Southern Iowa

Iowa State University has been awarded a $200,000 grant to develop perennial cash crops for southern Iowa. The grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy\u27s Sun Grant Initiative to fund biomass crop production research and forms a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service and Agricultural Research Service

Miscanthus Establishment and Survival

Rising costs of petroleum fuels and increased awareness of the adverse effects of greenhouse gases have spurred interest in renewable fuels and other ‘green’ products. Recent legislation has set goals of approximately 20 billion gallons of renewable fuel produced from non-corn starch sources by the year 2022. These driving forces have increased interest in dedicated bioenergy crops. Among perennial grasses, which have received an exceptional amount of attention as dedicated energy crops, one stands out: Miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus)

Effects of temperature, illumination and node position on stem propagation of Miscanthus × giganteus

The sterile triploid Miscanthus × giganteus is capable of yielding more biomass per unit land area than most other temperate crops. Although the yield potential of M. × giganteus is high, sterility requires all propagation of the plant to be done vegetatively. The traditional rhizome propagation system achieves relatively low multiplication rates, i.e. the number of new plants generated from a single-parent plant, and requires tillage that leaves soil vulnerable to CO2 and erosion losses. A stem-based propagation system is used in related crops like sugarcane, and may prove a viable alternative, but the environmental conditions required for shoot initiation from stems of M. × giganteus are unknown. A study was conducted to investigate the effect of temperature, illumination and node position on emergence of M. × giganteus shoots. Stems of M. × giganteus were cut into segments with a single node each, placed in controlled environments under varied soil temperature or light regimes and the number of emerged shoots were evaluated daily for 21 days. At temperatures of 20 and 25 °C, rhizomes produced significantly more shoots than did stem segments (P = 0.0105 and 0.0594, respectively), but the difference was not significant at 30 °C, where 63% of stems produced shoots compared to 80% of rhizomes (P = 0.2037). There was a strong positive effect (P = 0.0086) of soil temperature on emergence in the range of temperatures studied here (15–30 °C). Node positions higher on the stem were less likely to emerge (P \u3c 0.0001) with a significant interaction between illumination and node position. Planting the lowest five nodes from stems of M. × giganteus in 30 °C soil in the light resulted in 75% emergence, which represents a potential multiplication rate 10–12 times greater than that of the current rhizome-based system

Southern Iowa Biomass Crop Workshop

There is increasing interest in biomass crops for energy in Iowa. Initially, it was thought that strong commodity prices would limit the interest of growers in planting perennials for bioenergy, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. A Biomass Crop Production workshop Thursday, March 8, at Southwestern Community College in Creston, Iowa will explore why interest is increasing. The program will start at 8:45 a.m. and conclude at 2:15 p.m

Optimizing legume establishment in winter cereal grains

Project investigators sought to determine the resiliency of the winter cereal legume intercrop system in relation to agronomic management and to try to predict legume establishment

Optimizing Miscanthus for the Sustainable Bioeconomy:From Genes to Products

In this Research Topic we report advances in fundamental and applied aspects of the perennial C4 bioenergy crop Miscanthus (Miscanthus spp.) and its role in mitigating climate change as part of the bioeconomy. Miscanthus is extremely well suited for bioenergy, biofuel and bioproduct production over a wide geographic area including Europe and North America as well as its native Asia. Miscanthus offers a unique perspective within plant science: the challenge is to domesticate this novel crop for diverse environments and uses while simultaneously developing sustainable value chains to displace fossil fuels and contribute to climate change mitigation. Contributions to this Research Topic were offered from leading Miscanthus researchers from different parts of the world. We accepted 16 articles from 95 authors, which have generated 21,161 views at March 26 2018. Nine of the articles are the output of the European FP7 OPTIMISC project and describe multiple experiments investigating a common set of Miscanthus genotypes in Europe and Asia. These papers are complemented by seven additional articles from global authors, providing a comprehensive analysis of the state of the art of Miscanthus research and application

Practical Considerations in Developing Bioenergy Crops

Biofuels represent a significant challenge and opportunity for agriculture. Producing liquid fuels from cellulosic biomass affords a number of potential environmental benefits. Biofuels result in lower greenhouse gas emissions than fuels derived from petroleum. Growing perennial biomass crops reduces soil erosion and sequesters more carbon than annual crops grown for grain or biomass. Corn and sorghum are crops that have high near-term potential as annual biomass crops. Dedicated biomass crops with very high yields will produce more fuel per acre, helping to balance land for food and fuel. Switchgrass and Miscanthus are perennial species that have been broadly evaluated as potential biomass crops, but will benefit from further development for widespread use. New crops and cropping systems developed specifically for bioenergy production will be necessary to meet biofuel production targets. Bioenergy crops should be developed that use inputs efficiently, have high and stable productivity, have positive environment impact, and are compatible with existing cropping systems. Most importantly, biomass crop portfolios must be developed that allow for sustained energy supply throughout the year

Miscanthus sacchariflorus – biofuel parent or new weed?

The perennial grass triploid Miscanthus × giganteus is a promising renewable bioenergy feedstock in the United States and Europe. Originating from eastern Asia, this species is a sterile hybrid cross between M. sinensis and M. sacchariflorus. While research has begun to examine the impacts of M. sinensis and triploid M. × giganteus on the landscape, M. sacchariflorus has been largely overlooked in the peer-reviewed literature. This review article discusses the origin, uses, distribution, and invasive potential of M. sacchariflorus. M. sacchariflorus is capable of producing high yields (10.7 t DM ha−1 yr−1), generally does not reproduce by seed, and can be challenging to establish due to poor cold tolerance, likely due to the limited germplasm used in evaluations. However, M. sacchariflorus has abundant and aggressively spreading rhizomes, which underscores its invasive risk. In the United States, it is listed as escaped from cultivation in at least eight states, primarily in the Midwest, although it is likely that not all populations have been reported. As such, it is essential to generate a comprehensive dataset of all known M. sacchariflorus populations and monitor any continued spread of this species

Where can switchgrass production be more profitable than corn and soybean? An integrated subfield assessment in Iowa, USA

Perennial bioenergy crops are considered an important feedstock for a growing bioeconomy. However, in the USA, production of biofuel from these dedicated, nonfood crops is lagging behind federal mandates and markets have yet to develop. Most studies on the economic potential of perennial biofuel crops have concluded that even high-yielding bioenergy grasses are unprofitable compared to corn/soybeans, the prevailing crops in the United States Corn Belt. However, they did not account for opportunities precision agriculture presents to integrate perennials into agronomically and economically underperforming parts of corn/soybean fields. Using publicly available subfield data and market projections, we identified an upper bound to the areas in Iowa, United States, where the conversion from corn/soybean cropland to an herbaceous bioenergy crop, switchgrass, could be economically viable under different price, land tenancy, and yield scenarios. Assuming owned land, medium crop prices, and a biomass price of US$55 Mg-1, we showed that 4.3$ 0 ha-1 to 692 ha-1. In the three counties of highest economic opportunity, total annualized producer benefits from converting corn/soybean to switchgrass summed to US$ 2.6 million, 3.4 million, and 7.6 million, respectively. This is the first study to quantify an upper bound to the potential private economic benefits from targeted conversion of unfavorable corn/soybean cropland to switchgrass, leaving arable land already under perennial cover unchanged. Broadly, we conclude that areas with high within-field yield variation provide highest economic opportunities for switchgrass conversion. Our results are relevant for policy design intended to improve the sustainability of agricultural production. While focused on Iowa, this approach is applicable to other intensively farmed regions globally with similar data availability

Potential for Sorghum Genotypes in a Double-cropping System

The majority of the ethanol currently produced in the United States is derived from the hydrolysis and fermentation of starch provided from corn (Zea mays) grain. Although this is a suitable temporary solution, there are some long-term issues associated with continued use of corn grain as an ethanol feedstock. It has been estimated that if the entire U.S. corn crop was used for ethanol production, it would only meet approximately 15 to 25% of the U.S. transportation fuel need. Thus ethanol produced from biomass is expected to help meet the energy needs that grain ethanol may not provide