Download or read book Incorporating Agricultural Management Practices Into the Assessment of Soil Carbon Change and Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn Stover Ethanol Production written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Land management practices such as cover crop adoption or manure application that can increase soil organic carbon (SOC) may provide a way to counter SOC loss upon removal of stover from corn fields for use as a biofuel feedstock. This report documents the data, methodology, and assumptions behind the incorporation of land management practices into corn-soybean systems that dominate U.S. grain production using varying levels of stover removal in the GREETTM (Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation) model and its CCLUB (Carbon Calculator for Land Use change from Biofuels production) module. Tillage (i.e., conventional, reduced and no tillage), corn stover removal (i.e., at 0, 30% and 60% removal rate), and organic matter input techniques (i.e., cover crop and manure application) are included in the analysis as major land management practices. Soil carbon changes associated with land management changes were modeled with a surrogate CENTURY model. The resulting SOC changes were incorporated into CCLUB while GREET was expanded to include energy and material consumption associated with cover crop adoption and manure application. Life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of stover ethanol were estimated using a marginal approach (all burdens and benefits assigned to corn stover ethanol) and an energy allocation approach (burdens and benefits divided between grain and stover ethanol). In the latter case, we considered corn grain and corn stover ethanol to be produced at an integrated facility. Life-cycle GHG emissions of corn stover ethanol are dependent upon the analysis approach selected (marginal versus allocation) and the land management techniques applied. The expansion of CCLUB and GREET to accommodate land management techniques can produce a wide range of results because users can select from multiple scenario options such as choosing tillage levels, stover removal rates, and whether crop yields increase annually or remain constant. In a scenario with conventional tillage and a 30% stover removal rate, life-cycle GHG emissions for a combined gallon of corn grain and stover ethanol without cover crop adoption or manure application are 49 g CO2eq MJ-1, in comparison with 91 g CO2eq MJ-1 for petroleum gasoline. Adopting a cover crop or applying manure reduces the former ethanol life-cycle GHG emissions by 8% and 10%, respectively. We considered two different life cycle analysis approaches to develop estimates of life-cycle GHG emissions for corn stover ethanol, marginal analysis and energy allocation. In the same scenario, this fuel has GHG emissions of 12 - 20 g CO2eq MJ-1 (for manure and cover crop application, respectively) and 45 - 48 g CO2eq MJ-1 with the marginal approach and the energy allocation approach, respectively.
Download or read book Bioenergy and Land Use Change written by Zhangcai Qin and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although bioenergy is a renewable energy source, it is not without impact on the environment. Both the cultivation of crops specifically for use as biofuels and the use of agricultural byproducts to generate energy changes the landscape, affects ecosystems, and impacts the climate. Bioenergy and Land Use Change focuses on regional and global assessments of land use change related to bioenergy and the environmental impacts. This interdisciplinary volume provides both high level reviews and in-depth analyses on specific topics. Volume highlights include: Land use change concepts, economics, and modeling Relationships between bioenergy and land use change Impacts on soil carbon, soil health, water quality, and the hydrologic cycle Impacts on natural capital and ecosystem services Effects of bioenergy on direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions Biogeochemical and biogeophysical climate regulation Uncertainties and challenges associated with land use change quantification and environmental impact assessments Bioenergy and Land Use Change is a valuable resource for professionals, researchers, and graduate students from a wide variety of fields including energy, economics, ecology, geography, agricultural science, geoscience, and environmental science. Read an interview with the editors to find out more: https://eos.org/editors-vox/bioenergys-impacts-on-the-landscape
Download or read book Precision Conservation written by Jorge A. Delgado and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-01-22 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Precision conservation is a reality, and we are moving towards improved effectiveness of conservation practices by accounting for temporal and spatial variability within and off field. This is the first book to cover the application of the principles of precision conservation to target conservation practices across fields and watersheds. It has clearly been established that the 21st century will present enormous challenges, from increased yield demands to climate change. Without improved conservation practices it will not be possible to ensure food security and conservation effectiveness. Readers will appreciate the application of the precision conservation concept to increase conservation effectiveness in a variety of contexts, with a focus on recent advances in technology, methods, and improved results. IN PRESS! This book is being published according to the “Just Published” model, with more chapters to be published online as they are completed.
Download or read book Policy Implications of Allocation Methods in the Life Cycle Analysis of Integrated Corn and Corn Stover Ethanol Production written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 11 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here, a biorefinery may produce multiple fuels from more than one feedstock. The ability of these fuels to qualify as one of the four types of biofuels under the US Renewable Fuel Standard and to achieve a low carbon intensity score under California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard can be strongly influenced by the approach taken to their life cycle analysis (LCA). For example, in facilities that may co-produce corn grain and corn stover ethanol, the ethanol production processes can share the combined heat and power (CHP) that is produced from the lignin and liquid residues from stover ethanol production. We examine different LCA approaches to corn grain and stover ethanol production considering different approaches to CHP treatment. In the baseline scenario, CHP meets the energy demands of stover ethanol production first, with additional heat and electricity generated sent to grain ethanol production. The resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for grain and stover ethanol are 57 and 25 g-CO2eq/MJ, respectively, corresponding to a 40 and 74% reduction compared to the GHG emissions of gasoline. We illustrate that emissions depend on allocation of burdens of CHP production and corn farming, along with the facility capacities. Co-product handling techniques can strongly influence LCA results and should therefore be transparently documented.
Download or read book Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2010-07-25 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last 20 years, there has been a remarkable emergence of innovations and technological advances that are generating promising changes and opportunities for sustainable agriculture, yet at the same time the agricultural sector worldwide faces numerous daunting challenges. Not only is the agricultural sector expected to produce adequate food, fiber, and feed, and contribute to biofuels to meet the needs of a rising global population, it is expected to do so under increasingly scarce natural resources and climate change. Growing awareness of the unintended impacts associated with some agricultural production practices has led to heightened societal expectations for improved environmental, community, labor, and animal welfare standards in agriculture. Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century assesses the scientific evidence for the strengths and weaknesses of different production, marketing, and policy approaches for improving and reducing the costs and unintended consequences of agricultural production. It discusses the principles underlying farming systems and practices that could improve the sustainability. It also explores how those lessons learned could be applied to agriculture in different regional and international settings, with an emphasis on sub-Saharan Africa. By focusing on a systems approach to improving the sustainability of U.S. agriculture, this book can have a profound impact on the development and implementation of sustainable farming systems. Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century serves as a valuable resource for policy makers, farmers, experts in food production and agribusiness, and federal regulatory agencies.
Download or read book Improvements in Life Cycle Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn Ethanol written by Adam J. Liska and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Corn-ethanol production is expanding rapidly with the adoption of improved technologies to increase energy efficiency and profitability in crop production, ethanol conversion, and coproduct use. Life cycle assessment can evaluate the impact of these changes on environmental performance metrics. To this end, we analyzed the life cycles of corn-ethanol systems accounting for the majority of U.S. capacity to estimate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy efficiencies on the basis of updated values for crop management and yields, biorefinery operation, and coproduct utilization. Direct-effect GHG emissions were estimated to be equivalent to a 48% to 59% reduction compared to gasoline, a twofold to threefold greater reduction than reported in previous studies. Ethanol-to-petroleum output/input ratios ranged from 10:1 to 13:1 but could be increased to 19:1 if farmers adopted high-yield progressive crop and soil management practices. An advanced closed-loop biorefinery with anaerobic digestion reduced GHG emissions by 67% and increased the net energy ratio to 2.2, from 1.5 to 1.8 for the most common systems. Such improved technologies have the potential to move corn-ethanol closer to the hypothetical performance of cellulosic biofuels. Likewise, the larger GHG reductions estimated in this study allow a greater buffer for inclusion of indirect-effect land-use change emissions while still meeting regulatory GHG reduction targets. These results suggest that corn-ethanol systems have substantially greater potential to mitigate GHG emissions and reduce dependence on imported petroleum for transportation fuels than reported previously.
Download or read book Agricultural Practices and Policies for Carbon Sequestration in Soil written by John M. Kimble and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2016-04-19 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change is one factor driving agricultural policy development of programs that might pay farmers for practices with a high potential to sequester carbon. With chapters by economists, policy makers, farmers, land managers, energy company representatives, and soil scientists, Agricu
Download or read book The Potential of U S Cropland to Sequester Carbon and Mitigate the Greenhouse Effect written by John M. Kimble and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 1998-08-01 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report assesses the potential of U.S. cropland to sequester carbon, concluding that properly applied soil restorative processes and best management practices can help mitigate the greenhouse effect by decreasing the emissions of greenhouse gases from U.S. agricultural activities and by making U.S. cropland a major sink for carbon sequestration. Topics include: Describe the greenhouse processes and global tends in emissions as well as the three principal components of anthropogenic global warming potential Present data on U.S. emissions and agriculture's related role Examines the soil organic carbon (SOC) pool in soils of the U.S. and its loss due to cultivation Provides a reference for the magnitude of carbon sequestration potential Analyzes the primary processes governing greenhouse gas emission from the pedosphere Establishes a link between SOC content and soil quality Outlines strategies for mitigating emissions from U.S. cropland Discusses soil erosion management Assesses the potential of using cropland to create biomass for direct fuel to produce power Details the potential for sequestering carbon by intensifying prime agricultural land The Potential of U.S. Cropland to Sequester Carbon and Mitigate the Greenhouse Effect provides an exceptional framework for the adoption of science-based management methods on U.S. cropland, encouraging appropriate agricultural practices for the sustainable use of our natural resources and the improvement of our nation's environment.
Download or read book Life Cycle Assessment of Select Agricultural Practices written by Mukesh Dev Bhattarai and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change may have detrimental effects on agriculture productivity (Challinor et al., 2009). At the same time, agriculture also plays a role in contributing to the causes of global warming (IPCC, 2009). The present research examined current agro-management practices of select agriculture management practices and products with a threefold objective, namely i) to understand the possible impact of climate change on crop yields, ii) to examine the carbon sequestration potential of select agricultural crops and management practices, and iii) to conduct a thorough life cycle assessment to estimate the carbon footprint of select agriculture crops and management practices, so as to help policy makers, planners and business managers in devising appropriate mitigation and adaptation policy frameworks and make sensible management decisions in the context of climate change. The research was conducted in a series of three studies. The first study investigated future corn and soybean yields in the Raccoon watershed in the US Corn Belt using projected climate data. This study used the Environment Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model to estimate the impact of climate change for 2015--2099 with data downscaled from eight atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) with three emissions pathways reflecting low, medium and high greenhouse gas scenarios. Soil properties were gathered from the Soil Survey Geographic Database and data on crop rotation was derived from CropScape, a geospatial cropland data layer product of the US National Agricultural Statistics Service. The study also examined the possible impact of carbon fertilization on yields. The results show that carbon fertilization of soybean, a C3 plant, may contribute to an increase in yield of 3% to 22% while its contribution to the growth of corn, a C4 plant, will be much lower. The second study focused on land-based carbon sequestration possibilities. Land-based carbon sequestration constitutes a major low cost and immediately viable option in climate change mitigation. Using downscaled data from eight atmosphere-ocean general circulation models for a simulation period between 2015 and 2099, the study examined the carbon sequestration potential of alternative agricultural land uses in an intensively farmed Corn Belt watershed and the impact of climate change on crop yields including impact on switchgrass. The results of the study show that switching from conventional tillage and continuous corn to no-till corn-soybean can sequester the equivalent of 192.1 MtCO 2 eq of soil organic carbon per hectare with a sequestration rate of 2.26 MtCO2 eq ha-1 yr-1. The results also indicate that switchgrass can sequester the equivalent of 310.7 MtCO 2 eq of soil organic carbon per hectare with a sequestration rate of 3.65 MtCO2 eq ha-1 yr-1. The findings of this research suggest that climate change does not have a significant effect on switchgrass yields, unlike on corn and soybean yields, possibly due to the carbon fertilization effect. As mentioned, agriculture can contribute to climate change mitigation efforts by providing low-land-based options through changes in agricultural management practices. A thorough life cycle assessment is necessary to compare various opportunities provided by a variety of agricultural approaches. The last study is a cradle-to-farm gate life cycle assessment of the contributions of select agricultural practices to mitigate global warming. The study focused on land-based practices including crop rotations instead of just individual crops. In the assessment, the study also included examinations of below-the-ground soil to determine the organic carbon sequestration potential of such practices, which most of the time is ignored in life cycle assessments due to lack of data. Specifically, the study examined three farming practices in the intensively farmed Raccoon watershed: continuous corn rotation with conventional tillage, corn-soybean rotation with no-till, and switchgrass. The assessment was conducted based on land units (hectares), instead of utilizing the usual practice of reporting life cycle assessment in product units, such as kilograms. The results of the life cycle assessment reveal that among the three agricultural practices, switchgrass has the lowest carbon footprint overall, and continuous corn rotation has the highest. Switching from continuous corn to switchgrass would reduce the overall greenhouse gases the most, by 6.30 Mg CO2eq/ha/yr, or by 62% compared to the emissions generated by the continuous corn rotation. Similarly, planting switchgrass instead of a corn-soybean rotation would reduce the overall emissions of greenhouse gases by 1.84 Mg CO2eq/ha/yr, or by 32% compared to the corn-soybean rotation. Finally, switching from continuous corn to the corn-soybean rotation would reduce overall greenhouse gases emissions by 4.46 Mg CO2eq/ha/yr or by 44% of the emissions generated by continuous corn. These findings can inform policy discussions on the potential of agriculture's role in climate change mitigation. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)
Download or read book Soil Management and Climate Change written by Maria Angeles Munoz and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2017-10-16 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soil Management and Climate Change: Effects on Organic Carbon, Nitrogen Dynamics, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions provides a state of the art overview of recent findings and future research challenges regarding physical, chemical and biological processes controlling soil carbon, nitrogen dynamic and greenhouse gas emissions from soils. This book is for students and academics in soil science and environmental science, land managers, public administrators and legislators, and will increase understanding of organic matter preservation in soil and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Given the central role soil plays on the global carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycles and its impact on greenhouse gas emissions, there is an urgent need to increase our common understanding about sources, mechanisms and processes that regulate organic matter mineralization and stabilization, and to identify those management practices and processes which mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, helping increase organic matter stabilization with suitable supplies of available N. - Provides the latest findings about soil organic matter stabilization and greenhouse gas emissions - Covers the effect of practices and management on soil organic matter stabilization - Includes information for readers to select the most suitable management practices to increase soil organic matter stabilization
Download or read book Fuel cycle Assessment of Selected Bioethanol Production written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A large amount of corn stover is available in the U.S. corn belt for the potential production of cellulosic bioethanol when the production technology becomes commercially ready. In fact, because corn stover is already available, it could serve as a starting point for producing cellulosic ethanol as a transportation fuel to help reduce the nation's demand for petroleum oil. Using the data available on the collection and transportation of corn stover and on the production of cellulosic ethanol, we have added the corn stover-to-ethanol pathway in the GREET model, a fuel-cycle model developed at Argonne National Laboratory. We then analyzed the life-cycle energy use and emission impacts of corn stover-derived fuel ethanol for use as E85 in flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs). The analysis included fertilizer manufacturing, corn farming, farming machinery manufacturing, stover collection and transportation, ethanol production, ethanol transportation, and ethanol use in light-duty vehicles (LDVs). Energy consumption of petroleum oil and fossil energy, emissions of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide [CO2], nitrous oxide [N2O], and methane [CH4]), and emissions of criteria pollutants (carbon monoxide [CO], volatile organic compounds [VOCs], nitrogen oxide [NO(subscript x)], sulfur oxide [SO(subscript x)], and particulate matter with diameters smaller than 10 micrometers [PM10]) during the fuel cycle were estimated. Scenarios of ethanol from corn grain, corn stover, and other cellulosic feedstocks were then compared with petroleum reformulated gasoline (RFG). Results showed that FFVs fueled with corn stover ethanol blends offer substantial energy savings (94-95%) relative to those fueled with RFG. For each Btu of corn stover ethanol produced and used, 0.09 Btu of fossil fuel is required. The cellulosic ethanol pathway avoids 86-89% of greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike the life cycle of corn grain-based ethanol, in which the ethanol plant consumes most of the fossil fuel, farming consumes most of the fossil fuel in the life cycle of corn stover-based ethanol.
Download or read book Life Cycle Assessment of Biorefineries written by Edgard Gnansounou and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2016-12-20 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life-Cycle Assessment of Biorefineries, the sixth and last book in the series on biomass-biorefineries discusses the unprecedented growth and development in the emerging concept of a global bio-based economy in which biomass-based biorefineries have attained center stage for the production of fuels and chemicals. It is envisaged that by 2020 a majority of chemicals currently being produced through a chemical route will be produced via a bio-based route. Agro-industrial residues, municipal solid wastes, and forestry wastes have been considered as the most significant feedstocks for such bio-refineries. However, for the techno-economic success of such biorefineries, it is of prime and utmost importance to understand their lifecycle assessment for various aspects. - Provides state-of-art information on the basics and fundamental principles of LCA for biorefineries - Contains key features for the education and understanding of integrated biorefineries - Presents models that are used to cope with land-use changes and their effects on biorefineries - Includes relevant case studies that illustrate main points
Download or read book Transportation Biofuels written by Alwin Hoogendoorn and published by Royal Society of Chemistry. This book was released on 2011 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Current world fossil oil production is struggling to meet demand and may even show a decline after 2010. It is therefore necessary to develop new energy-efficient production pathways for transportation biofuels. This book offers an insight into three promising and innovative pathways for the biological production of ethanol, biogas and biodiesel. These unconventional methods should provide higher product yields, less stringent feedstock specifications, lower chemical additive demand, reduced waste production and much better energy balances when compared to more traditional methods. One pathway concerns the enzymatic production of a new kind of biodiesel where no glycerol waste is produced and an up to twenty percent higher product yield is obtained. The other two pathways are based on the biological conversion of syngas into ethanol or methane using various kinds of lignocellulosic biomass as the starting point. For each of the three pathways a comparison will be made with competing production methods. The contents reflect extended desktop research and show practical experimental results. Government scientists, academics and biofuel producers with an interest in novel transportation fuels will all find this book to be essential reading.
Download or read book Analyzing the Effect of Variations in Soil and Management Practices on the Sustainability of Corn Stover Based Bioethanol Production in Mississippi written by and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The inherent variability in corn stover productivity due to variations in soils and crop management practices might contribute to a variation in corn stover-based bioethanol sustainability. This study was carried out to examine how changes in soil types and crop management options would affect corn stover yield (CSY) and the sustainability of the stover-based ethanol production in the Delta region of Mississippi. Based on potential acreage and geographical representation, three locations were selected. Using CERES-Maize model, stover yields were simulated for several scenarios of soils and crop management options. Based on 'net energy value (NEV)' computed from CSYs, a sustainability indicator for stover-based bioethanol production was established. The effects of soils and crop management options on CSY and NEV were determined using ANOVA tests and regression analyses. Both CSY and NEV were significantly different across sandy loam, silt loam, and silty clay loam soils and also across high-, mid-, and low-yielding cultivars. With an increase in irrigation level, both CSY and NEV increased initially and decreased after reaching a peak. A third-degree polynomial relationship was found between planting date and CSY and NEV each. By moving from the lowest to the highest production scenario, values of CSY and NEV could be increased by 86 to 553%, depending on location and weather condition. The effects of variations in soils and crop management options on NEV were the same as on CSY. The NEV was positive for all scenarios, indicating that corn stover-based ethanol production system in the Delta region is sustainable.
Download or read book Modeling Corn Ethanol and Climate written by Richard J. Plevin and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New fuel regulations based on life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have focused renewed attention on life cycle models of biofuels. The BESS model estimates 25% lower life cycle GHG emissions for corn ethanol than does the well-known GREET model, which raises questions about which model is more accurate. I develop a life cycle metamodel to compare the GREET and BESS models in detail and to explain why the results from these models diverge. I find two main reasons for the divergence: (1) BESS models a more efficient biorefinery than is modeled in the cases to which its results have been compared, and (2) in several instances BESS fails to properly count upstream emissions. Adjustments to BESS to account for these differences raise the estimated global warming intensity (not including land use change) of the corn ethanol pathway considered in that model from 45 to 61 g COe MJ1. Adjusting GREET to use BESS's biorefinery performance and coproduct credit assumptions reduces the GREET estimate from 64 to 61 g COe MJ1. Although this analysis explains the gap between the two models, both models would be improved with better data on corn production practices and by better treatment of agricultural inputs.
Download or read book Mitigation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Livestock Production written by Pierre J. Gerber and published by Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). This book was released on 2013 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The current analysis was conducted to evaluate the potential of nutritional, manure and animal husbandry practices for mitigating methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) - i.e. non-carbon dioxide (CO2) - GHG emissions from livestock production. These practices were categorized into enteric CH4, manure management and animal husbandry mitigation practices. Emphasis was placed on enteric CH4 mitigation practices for ruminant animals (only in vivo studies were considered) and manure mitigation practices for both ruminant and monogastric species. Over 900 references were reviewed; simulation and life cycle assessment analyses were generally excluded
Download or read book Biochar for Environmental Management written by Dr. Johannes Lehmann and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2009 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Biochar is the carbon-rich product when biomass (such as wood, manure, or crop residues) is heated in a closed container with little or no available air. It can be used to improve agriculture and the environment in several ways, and its stability in soil and superior nutrient-retention properties make it an ideal soil amendment to increase crop yields. In addition to this, biochar sequestration, in combination with sustainable biomass production, can be carbon-negative and therefore used to actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, with major implications for mitigation of climate change. Biochar production can also be combined with bioenergy production through the use of the gases that are given off in the pyrolysis process.This book is the first to synthesize the expanding research literature on this topic. The book's interdisciplinary approach, which covers engineering, environmental sciences, agricultural sciences, economics and policy, is a vital tool at this stage of biochar technology development. This comprehensive overview of current knowledge will be of interest to advanced students, researchers and professionals in a wide range of disciplines"--Provided by publisher.
