Report Looks at Future Synergy Between Food and Biofuel

A section of the report "Food, Fuel, and Plant Nutrient Use in the Future" released by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) describes scenarios that would expand the supply of animal feed on the same amount of land through the synergies offered by cellulosic biofuel production.

The authors of the CAST paper offered insights into the food versus fuel discussion. They said that "the same facility that produces pretreated feedstock for biofuel production may be able to produce enhanced ruminant animal feedstock." Based on their analysis, it is likely that increased cellulosic biofuel production will be accompanied by large increases in quantities of ruminant animal feeds, leading to an increase in both protein and digestible energy.

The effect of these two changes will be to use land more efficiently to meet both food (actually animal feed) and biofuel needs. One scenario described in the report is the early harvest of feedstocks such as alfalfa and grasses when the protein content is high, utilizing the cellulosic fraction for biofuel production and concentrating the protein for animal feed. Additional feed protein can be co-produced with biofuels via the spent yeast.

Expanding biomass production for food and biofuel will require close attention to plant nutrient needs. "There is an urgent need to support research and development to decrease total land requirements for biofuel production by integrating animal feed production with cellulosic biofuel production and to recover and recycle key plant nutrients during biofuel production", the paper concludes.