National Wildlife Federation Proposes Sustainable Biomass Biofuels Initiative
08 February 2007
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has proposed an initiative that would enroll up to five million acres of land to promote the sustainable production of next generation biomass energy.
The Biofuels Innovation Program (BIP) would provide financial and technical assistance to landowners to produce native perennial energy crops and crop mixes in a manner that protects the nation’s soil, air, water and wildlife.
The program could be enacted under the energy title of the Farm Bill of 2007.
Biofuels represent a big part of our energy future, and this proposal represents a groundbreaking new direction. Native grasses, trees, and other plants have the potential to double energy yields per acre, with just a fraction of the energy needed to produce corn-based ethanol. As these new technologies come on line, they will be key to our future clean energy production. The use of these fuels will also help stem global warming by decreasing greenhouse gas emissions and storing carbon.
—Julie Sibbing, National Wildlife Federation Senior Program Manager for Agriculture Policy
The Biofuels Innovation Program would support a wide variety of feedstocks and technologies. While the program would support production of switchgrass for ethanol, it would also support jojoba for biodiesel, mixed prairie grasses for gasification to generate electricity, trees or grasses for co-generation of electricity, and other alternative energies. The plants used must be perennials native to the United States, and not have the potential to become invasive.
In order for a facility that uses biomass to be economically viable, the biomass it utilizes must be grown within a relatively concentrated area to ensure manageable transportation costs. Most experts describe this area as being within a 50 to 70 mile radius of the facility. The Biofuels Innovation Program is designed to address this issue by requiring groups of landowners to come together to apply for funding as a project, rather than as individual landowners.
The BIP program provides Business Planning and Assistance Grants of up to $50,000 per project to assist in hiring consultants, technical experts, etc., to develop a BIP proposal. A farmer’s cooperative, a local extension service, a bioenergy facility, an entrepreneur, or other entity could apply for the funding, develop a business plan and recruit enough owners and operators to apply for the program.
The projects would be ranked, based on how many owners/operators are participating, the number of acres proposed for enrollment, the probability that the crop or crops proposed to be grown will be utilized for the purposes of the program; the type and diversity of eligible crops to be grown, and the potential for positive economic impact to the local community.
Priority would be granted to projects that produce polycultures of at least two species, those that have the greatest potential to improve soil, water and wildlife over current land covers; those that incorporate planting and/or harvesting practices that maximize diversity, those that will utilize farmer-owned facilities, those with the greatest percentage of beginning and disadvantaged farmers and those in under-represented geographical regions.
In order to prevent subsidies for the destruction of native habitats and the resulting carbon dioxide “burp” that would undermine the global greenhouse emissions implication of any biofuels grown on the land, the BIP program has strict land eligibility criteria that focuses eligibility on non-federal lands that have already been broken for agriculture, managed as pasture with few native species left, farmed for tobacco within the last 15 years, was in a Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contract that has since expired, has been clear cut of forests within the two years prior to enactment of the legislation, or is managed according to Forest Stewardship Council or similar, approved plans for use of excess woody material.
Additionally, due to serious wildlife impacts caused by woody vegetation plantings on areas that were historically grassland, woody crops are restricted to areas that were historically forested.
Participants must plant an eligible crop within two years of enrollment and must agree to the following conservation provisions on all enrolled land in order to ensure the sustainability of the operation and protection of soil, water and wildlife:
Harvesting of eligible crops must not occur during the primary nesting or brood rearing seasons of bird species nesting in the area;
Stubble remnants for non-woody crops shall be a minimum of 10 inches in height to provide for wildlife cover and soil protection;
Soil conservation plans must be implemented by owners or operators for preventing erosion on areas planted and harvested for eligible crops;
Diverse, vegetated buffers are required around all water resources on enrolled lands;
Chemical inputs shall be minimized; and
A “floating reserve” of at least 20% of enrolled acreage must be left un-harvested each year, except for years of drought emergency.
Sounds like well thought-out plan.
Posted by: Andrey | 08 February 2007 at 09:47 PM
A recent study at the U of M found that the right mix of 16 different perrenial grasses yielded 2.5 times more ethanol per acre than Corn, but also that the grasses could thrive with no fertilizer, no artifical watering, and on land unfit for farming.
They also found that the soil was constantly resupplied with nutrients by some of the species used, so yields would not fall in the future.
But the most exciting thing was that the fuels made from these polyculutred grass fields had a negative carbon balance because the roots of the grasses continued to grow and remained after harvesting.
This is very promising.
Posted by: Adam Galas | 09 February 2007 at 05:51 AM
Could multiple-varieties of perrenial grasses (with crop rotations or crop mixes) be used to economically produce nbutanol and diesel oil replacement variances?
From a practical point of view, butanol seems to be a better solution due to very similar energy density to existing fuels + ease of transportation + distribution with existing infrastructures + usable with little or no modification to current ICE vehicles and machines.
How does butanol compare with ethanol from a grass to wheel GHG point of view?
Posted by: Harvey D. | 09 February 2007 at 07:54 AM
Ethanol has better farm and/or corn lobbyists than butanol, but yes butanol beats ethanol in every area you mentioned. GHG should be similar, in my opinion.
Yes this initiative is the way to go, to supplement our existing fuel base, at least until battery/fuel cell/hydrogen technologies mature in our future electric cars. I do like the phrase that the plants must be native, and not become invasive. Alot of people overlook that fact when promoting species into new areas.
Being good stewards of our nations productive lands by giving back to the soil will ensure our grandchildrens, and greatgrandchildrens, a bright lasting future.
Posted by: Mark A | 09 February 2007 at 08:49 AM
It's great to hear about initiatives to create a "cradle-to-cradle" sustainable source of energy. I bet there are plenty of subsidized farmers that will see programs like this as a threat.
The status quo has problems and only changing will bring about a better future.
Posted by: GreenGiant | 09 February 2007 at 11:01 AM
Looks to be like a plan to build modular micro-refineries with government subsidy using a rational that is fallacious in its assumptions on the amount of energy such a program could produce compared to other efforts. Given that it support Big Oil, it probably is a shoe-in.
Posted by: jcwinnie | 09 February 2007 at 02:12 PM
This sounds awesome but good luck. If companies like Monsanto can't sell a bazillion in fertilizer for bio-fuels/energy crops then the resistance to any such idea will be immense. All the best to those pushing it, it sounds like a touch of sanity.
Posted by: Chillpill | 10 February 2007 at 11:03 AM
I disagree about Monsanto. They are all for Big Ag, as they seem to make a dime off of anything that gets planted.
Posted by: John | 10 February 2007 at 03:22 PM
DME is an LPG-like synthetic fuel can be produced through gasification of Biomass. The synthetic gas is then catalyzed to produce DME. A gas under normal pressure and temperature, DME can be compressed into a liquid and used as an alternative to diesel. Its low emissions make it relatively environmentally friendly. In fact, Shandong University completed Pilot plant in Jinan and will be sharing their experience at upcoming North Asia DME / Methanol conference in Beijing, 27-28 June 2007, St Regis Hotel. The conference covers key areas which include:
DME productivity can be much higher especially if
country energy policies makes an effort comparable to
that invested in increasing supply.
By:
National Development Reform Commission NDRC
Ministry of Energy for Mongolia
Production of DME/ Methanol through biomass
gasification could potentially be commercialized
By:
Shandong University completed Pilot plant in Jinan and
will be sharing their experience.
Advances in conversion technologies are readily
available and offer exciting potential of DME as a
chemical feedstock
By: Kogas, Lurgi and Haldor Topsoe
Available project finance supports the investments
that DME/ Methanol can play a large energy supply role
By: International Finance Corporation
For more information: www.iceorganiser.com
Posted by: Cheryl Ho | 22 May 2007 at 11:17 PM