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Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest

Nature volume 493, pages 514–517 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Legislation on biofuels production in the USA1 and Europe2,3 is directing food crops towards the production of grain-based ethanol2,3, which can have detrimental consequences for soil carbon sequestration4, nitrous oxide emissions5, nitrate pollution6, biodiversity7 and human health8. An alternative is to grow lignocellulosic (cellulosic) crops on ‘marginal’ lands9. Cellulosic feedstocks can have positive environmental outcomes10,11 and could make up a substantial proportion of future energy portfolios12,13. However, the availability of marginal lands for cellulosic feedstock production, and the resulting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, remains uncertain. Here we evaluate the potential for marginal lands in ten Midwestern US states to produce sizeable amounts of biomass and concurrently mitigate GHG emissions. In a comparative assessment of six alternative cropping systems over 20 years, we found that successional herbaceous vegetation, once well established, has a direct GHG emissions mitigation capacity that rivals that of purpose-grown crops (−851 ± 46 grams of CO2 equivalent emissions per square metre per year (gCO2e m−2 yr−1)). If fertilized, these communities have the capacity to produce about 63 ± 5 gigajoules of ethanol energy per hectare per year. By contrast, an adjacent, no-till corn–soybean–wheat rotation produces on average 41 ± 1 gigajoules of biofuel energy per hectare per year and has a net direct mitigation capacity of −397 ± 32 gCO2e m−2 yr−1; a continuous corn rotation would probably produce about 62 ± 7 gigajoules of biofuel energy per hectare per year, with 13% less mitigation. We also perform quantitative modelling of successional vegetation on marginal lands in the region at a resolution of 0.4 hectares, constrained by the requirement that each modelled location be within 80 kilometres of a potential biorefinery. Our results suggest that such vegetation could produce about 21 gigalitres of ethanol per year from around 11 million hectares, or approximately 25 per cent of the 2022 target for cellulosic biofuel mandated by the US Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, with no initial carbon debt nor the indirect land-use costs associated with food-based biofuels. Other regional-scale aspects of biofuel sustainability2, such as water quality11,14 and biodiversity15, await future study.

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Figure 1: GHG balances of alternative cropping systems in southwest Michigan for biofuel feedstock production.
Figure 2: Above-ground biomass production of the successional system between 1989 and 2009 in 1-ha treatment plots.
Figure 3: Potential biomass collection areas for cellulosic biorefineries within ten US midwest states.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Bohm, K. A. Kahmark, I. Shcherbak, and S. VanderWulp for help with data assembly; C. McMinn, J. Simmons and many others for field and laboratory assistance; J. R. Williams for EPIC model advice; and D. H. Manowitz for programming and computational assistance. We are additionally indebted to B. Bond-Lamberty, B. E. Dale, V. H. Dale, J. D. Hill, W. M. Post and T. O. West for comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Financial support for this work was provided by the US DOE Office of Science (DE-FC02-07ER64494, KP1601050) and Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (DE-AC05-76RL01830, OBP 20469-19145), the US National Science Foundation LTER program (DEB 1027253), NASA (NNH08ZDA001N), and MSU AgBioResearch. EPIC simulations were performed on the PNNL Evergreen computer cluster, which is supported by the US DOE Office of Science (DE-AC05-76RL01830).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, Michigan, USA

    Ilya Gelfand, Ritvik Sahajpal, Xuesong Zhang, R. César Izaurralde, Katherine L. Gross & G. Philip Robertson

  2. W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University, Hickory Corners, 49060, Michigan, USA

    Ilya Gelfand, Katherine L. Gross & G. Philip Robertson

  3. Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and University of Maryland, College Park, 20740, Maryland, USA

    Ritvik Sahajpal, Xuesong Zhang & R. César Izaurralde

  4. Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, 20740, Maryland, USA

    Ritvik Sahajpal & R. César Izaurralde

  5. Department of Plant Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, Michigan, USA

    Katherine L. Gross

  6. Department of Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, Michigan, USA

    G. Philip Robertson

Authors
  1. Ilya Gelfand
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  3. Xuesong Zhang
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  4. R. César Izaurralde
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  5. Katherine L. Gross
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  6. G. Philip Robertson
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Contributions

G.P.R., I.G. and R.C.I. designed the study. I.G., R.C.I., R.S. and X.Z. analysed data and wrote initial drafts of the manuscript. R.C.I., R.S. and X.Z. performed simulations. X.Z. designed the spatially explicit modelling system. K.L.G. designed and performed the fertilization study. I.G. and G.P.R. wrote the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ilya Gelfand.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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This file contains Supplementary Figures 1-6, Supplementary Tables 1-12, Supplementary Equations 1-8, Supplementary Methods and Supplementary References. (PDF 499 kb)

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Gelfand, I., Sahajpal, R., Zhang, X. et al. Sustainable bioenergy production from marginal lands in the US Midwest. Nature 493, 514–517 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11811

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