Ceres $5M ARPA-E Project to Focus on Increasing Biomass Yields of Energy Grasses by Up to 40%

10 November 2009

Energy crop company Ceres, Inc. plans to expand an advanced trait development project to increase biomass yields of several energy grasses by as much as 40% in coming years, while simultaneously decreasing the use of inputs such as nitrogen fertilizers. The project will be funded in part by a $5 million ARPA-E grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE). (Earlier post.)

Projections indicate that the Ceres traits alone could displace 1.3 billion barrels of oil and 58 million tons of coal over a ten-year period. Depending on cropping practices, 1.2 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer could be eliminated (about the amount of nitrogen needed for 24 million acres of cotton), among other benefits.

Low-input traits developed through modern genetics can provide wide-reaching benefits to the energy and agricultural sectors as well as the environment—just the type of transformational impact energy officials are looking for.

—Ceres chief scientific officer Richard Flavell

The three-year project is expected to begin next month. Ceres researchers will test its advanced traits in a variety of energy grasses such as switchgrass, sorghum and miscanthus. Productivity and inputs requirements, such as fertilizer, will be evaluated as well as expected improvements to carbon and nitrogen cycles. Upon successful completion, the Ceres traits would undergo a customary evaluation by USDA prior to full commercialization.

At the heart of our ambitions for a full-scale bioenergy industry will be how well we utilize our land resources. With greater use of technology, increased productivity will go hand-in-hand with greater sustainability.

—Richard Hamilton, Ceres CEO

Hamilton noted that higher yields reduce the land area needed to support individual projects. Hardier, higher yielding seed varieties could also sequester more carbon and expand the area where economic yields can be obtained (marginal acres).