Bioethanol Production Potential of Cellulosic Biomass Crops in the North Central USA.

Many plant species have been proposed as candidate biomass crops for feedstock to the emerging bioethanol industry. Given the developmental stage of the lignocellulosic ethanol industry, little information is available on biomass crop yields and bioethanol quality component levels from cropping systems grown side-by-side in the same production environment. In this study we evaluated seven model bioenergy cropping systems in both southcentral Wisconsin (ARL) and southwest Michigan (KBS). The cropping systems studied were stover from continuous corn (Zea mays L.), switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), giant miscanthus (Miscanthus × giganteus Greef & Deuter ex Hodkinson & Renvoize), hybrid poplar (Populus nigra × P. maximowiczii A. Henry ‘NM6’), a native grass mixture (5 sown species), an early successional community, and a restored prairie (18 sown species). Corn stover had the highest fermentable sugar concentrations followed by perennial grasses, followed by mixed polycultures of grasses and forbs. On a land area basis, giant miscanthus had greater ethanol yield potential (1962 and 2491 l ha^-1, at ARL and KBS, respectively) than the other systems. Switchgrass (1094 and 1019 l ha^-1, at ARL and KBS, respectively) had equal or greater ethanol yield potential relative to corn stover (1123 and 880 l ha^-1, at ARL and KBS, respectively).  At both locations, the monoculture or mixed grass systems had higher ethanol yield potential on a land area basis than mixed polycultures of grasses and forbs.

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See more from this Division: ASA Section: Agronomic Production Systems
See more from this Session: General Bioenergy Systems Oral

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