Soil Management Implications of Producing Biofuel Feedstock

Use of Fly Ash as Soil Amendment for Biofuel Feedstock Production with Concomitant Disposal of Waste Accumulations

Increasingly higher costs of disposal of fly ash (FA) on the one hand, and on the other, the current focus on bioenergy offer opportunities for using FA as soil amendment for producing biofuel feedstock while cleaning up accumulations of the product. Greenhouse pot experiments were conducted in a silt loam soil amended with 0%, 2.5% and 20% FA to determine boundary shoot and root biomass produc...

The Biofuel Feedstock Genomics Resource: a web-based portal and database to enable functional genomics of plant biofuel feedstock species

Major feedstock sources for future biofuel production are likely to be high biomass producing plant species such as poplar, pine, switchgrass, sorghum and maize. One active area of research in these species is genome-enabled improvement of lignocellulosic biofuel feedstock quality and yield. To facilitate genomic-based investigations in these species, we developed the Biofuel Feedstock Genomic ...

Potential ecological impacts of switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) biofuel cultivation in the Central Great Plains, USA

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a broadly adapted warm-season grass species native to most of the central and eastern United States. Switchgrass has been identified as a potential biofuel species because it is a native species that requires minimal management, and has a large potential to sequester carbon underground. Since the 1990’s, switchgrass has been bred to produce cultivars with in...

Plants and Plant Products Useful for Biofuel Manufacture and Feedstock, and Methods of Producing Same

Soil carbon sequestration and land use change associated with biofuel production: empirical evidence

Soil organic carbon (SOC) change can be a major impact of land use change (LUC) associated with biofuel feedstock production. By collecting and analyzing data from worldwide field observations of major LUCs from cropland, grassland, and forest to lands producing biofuel crops (i.e. corn, switchgrass, Miscanthus, poplar, and willow), we were able to estimate SOC response ratios and sequestration...