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Can biofuels be sustainable?
August 20, 2008With oil prices skyrocketing, the search is on for efficient and sustainable biofuels. Research published this month in Agronomy Journal examines one biofuel crop contender: corn stover.
Corn stover is made up of the leaves and stalks of corn plants that are left in the field after harvesting the edible corn grain. Corn stover could supply as much as 25% of the biofuel crop needed by 2030.
Scientists with the USDA-ARS Agroecosystem Unit located at the University of Nebraska examined the long-term sustainability of using corn stover as a biofuel crop.
When corn stover is not harvested as a biofuel crop, it can be left on the fields to restore vital nutrients to the soil. Full-scale harvesting of corn stover may deplete the soil.
Researchers measured the soil organic carbon levels and residue production over 14 years in fields planted continuously with corn, continuously with soybeans, and with a rotation of corn and soybeans. Organic carbon rates were found to stay steady or even increase in all three field types.
Gary Varvel and Wally Wilhelm, who conducted the study, said "These results suggest that a portion of corn stover could be harvested for biofuel production without reducing soil organic carbon levels in high yielding systems. However, since this study did not study the direct impact of stover removal, that aspect remains to be evaluated."
Research into the effects of residue removal on soil organic carbon levels in several different cropping systems is ongoing at this and several other USDA-ARS locations throughout the U.S. Much of this research is under the auspices of a multi-location CRIS project within ARS called REAP (Renewable Energy Assessment Project).
American Society of Agronomy
When corn stover is not harvested as a biofuel crop, it can be left on the fields to restore vital nutrients to the soil. Full-scale harvesting of corn stover may deplete the soil.
Researchers measured the soil organic carbon levels and residue production over 14 years in fields planted continuously with corn, continuously with soybeans, and with a rotation of corn and soybeans. Organic carbon rates were found to stay steady or even increase in all three field types.
Gary Varvel and Wally Wilhelm, who conducted the study, said "These results suggest that a portion of corn stover could be harvested for biofuel production without reducing soil organic carbon levels in high yielding systems. However, since this study did not study the direct impact of stover removal, that aspect remains to be evaluated."
Research into the effects of residue removal on soil organic carbon levels in several different cropping systems is ongoing at this and several other USDA-ARS locations throughout the U.S. Much of this research is under the auspices of a multi-location CRIS project within ARS called REAP (Renewable Energy Assessment Project).
American Society of Agronomy
Corn Stover Current Events and Corn Stover News RSSTurning Waste Material into Ethanol
Say the word "biofuels" and most people think of grain ethanol and biodiesel. But there's another, older technology called gasification that's getting a new look from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory and Iowa State University. By combining gasification with high-tech nanoscale porous catalysts, they hope to create ethanol from a wide range of biomass, including distiller's grain left over from ethanol production, corn stover from the field, grass, wood pulp, animal waste, and garbage.
Iowa State researchers study ground cover to reduce impact of biomass harvest
Ground cover may be one workable method to reduce the effects of erosion that future biomass harvests are predicted to bring.
Money Doesn't Grow on Trees, But Gasoline Might
Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of "green gasoline," a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees.
Limited Biofuel Feedstock Supply?
The United States has embarked on an ambitious program to develop technology and infrastructure to economically and sustainably produce ethanol from biomass.
Researchers 'look into' plant cells to increase ethanol yields
Researchers have discovered that particles from cornstalks undergo previously unknown structural changes when processed to produce ethanol, an insight they said will help establish a viable method for large-scale production of ethanol from plant matter.
Research aims for more efficiency in harvest and handling
Kevin Shinners wants farmers to put less energy into harvesting and handling biofuel crops-less fuel, less time and less labor. As a field machinery specialist, Shinners has worked to improve the efficiency of harvesting forage for animals. Harvesting biomass crops poses similar challenges, he says.
Corn waste potentially more than ethanol
After the corn harvest, whether for cattle feed or corn on the cob, farmers usually leave the stalks and stems in the field, but now, a team of Penn State researchers think corn stover can be used not only to manufacture ethanol, but to generate electricity directly.
More Corn Stover Current Events and Corn Stover News Articles
 | Delignification kinetics of corn stover in lime pretreatment [An article from: Bioresource Technology] by S. Kim, M.T. Holtzapple This digital document is a journal article from Bioresource Technology, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Description: Corn stover was pretreated with excess calcium hydroxide (0.5g Ca(OH)"2/g raw biomass) in non-oxidative and oxidative conditions at... |
| We reap what we sow: examining costs/benefits of using corn stover for bioenergy.(President George Bush): An article from: Agricultural Research by Jan Suszkiw This digital document is an article from Agricultural Research, published by Thomson Gale on July 1, 2007. The length of the article is 1208 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Citation DetailsTitle: We reap... | |
| Fractionation of corn stover by hot-water and aqueous ammonia treatment [An article from: Bioresource Technology] by T.H. Kim, Y.Y. Lee This digital document is a journal article from Bioresource Technology, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Description: The efficiency of biomass utilization can be significantly improved by fractionation of biomass. A two-stage percolation process was... |
| Steam activation of chars produced from oat hulls and corn stover [An article from: Bioresource Technology] by M. Fan, W. Marshall, D. Daugaard, R. Brown This digital document is a journal article from Bioresource Technology, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Description: Oat hulls and corn stover were used to produce chars at approximately 500 ^oC. The carbon concentrations of oat hull char and... |
| Carbonic acid enhancement of hydrolysis in aqueous pretreatment of corn stover [An article from: Bioresource Technology] by G. Peter van Walsum, H. Shi This digital document is a journal article from Bioresource Technology, published by Elsevier in 2004. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Description: Carbonic acid and liquid hot water pretreatments were applied to corn stover. Temperatures ranged from 180 to 220 ^oC; reaction... |
| Effect of hemicellulose and lignin removal on enzymatic hydrolysis of steam pretreated corn stover [An article from: Bioresource Technology] by K. Ohgren, R. Bura, J. Saddler, G. Zacchi This digital document is a journal article from Bioresource Technology, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Description: Ethanol can be produced from lignocellulosic biomass using steam pretreatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis and fermentation.... |
| Effect of structural features on enzyme digestibility of corn stover [An article from: Bioresource Technology] by S. Kim, M.T. Holtzapple This digital document is a journal article from Bioresource Technology, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Description: Corn stover was pretreated with excess calcium hydroxide (0.5g Ca(OH)"2/g raw biomass) in non-oxidative and oxidative conditions at... |
| Combined sugar yields for dilute sulfuric acid pretreatment of corn stover followed by enzymatic hydrolysis of the remaining solids [An article from: Bioresource Technology] by T.A. Lloyd, C.E. Wyman This digital document is a journal article from Bioresource Technology, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Description: A number of previous studies determined dilute acid pretreatment conditions that maximize xylose yields from pretreatment or glucose... |
| Lime pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of corn stover [An article from: Bioresource Technology] by S. Kim, M.T. Holtzapple This digital document is a journal article from Bioresource Technology, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Description: Corn stover was pretreated with an excess of calcium hydroxide (0.5g Ca(OH)"2/g raw biomass) in non-oxidative and oxidative... |
| Partial flow of compressed-hot water through corn stover to enhance hemicellulose sugar recovery and enzymatic digestibility of cellulose [An article from: Bioresource Technology] by C. Liu, C.E. Wyman This digital document is a journal article from Bioresource Technology, published by Elsevier in . The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.Description: Flowthrough pretreatment with compressed-hot water can significantly increase the removal of xylan and lignin and enhance xylose... |
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