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CO2 emissions from crop residue-derived biofuels

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 932–933 (2014)Cite this article

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To the Editor —

The claim by Liska et al.1 that corn stover-derived ethanol can be worse than gasoline has generated lots of media interest, but offers little value to the research community or to policymakers. They have merely demonstrated that if you model an irresponsible and unsustainable scenario, the results will look irresponsible and unsustainable. No one who has given serious thought to crop residues for biofuels would find their proposed across-the-board 6 Mg ha−1 collection rate in the US Corn Belt at all reasonable.

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Figure 1: Net soil carbon emissions and net life cycle greenhouse-gas emissions associated with crop residue removal and tillage practices.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, 80523, Colorado, USA

    John J. Sheehan & Keith Paustian

  2. US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Paul R. Adler

  3. US Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, Soil Plant Nutrient Research Unit, Fort Collins, 80526, Colorado, USA

    Stephen J. Del Grosso

  4. Natural Resources Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, 80523, Colordao, USA

    Mark Easter, William Parton, Keith Paustian & Stephen Williams

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  1. John J. Sheehan
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  2. Paul R. Adler
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Correspondence to John J. Sheehan.

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Sheehan, J., Adler, P., Del Grosso, S. et al. CO2 emissions from crop residue-derived biofuels. Nature Clim Change 4, 932–933 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2403

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