Estimating Ethanol Yields from CRP Croplands

U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service scientists and collaborators have made a feasibility study on how marginal croplands placed in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) could be used for biofuel production. The study considered plant composition, species diversity, aboveground biomass, plant chemical composition and potential ethanol yield at 34 warm-season grassland sites across the major ecological regions of the northeastern United States.

The team found 285 plants species in the CRP grasslands with an average of 34 different plant species per quarter-acre. The number of species found in CRP grassland however, is inversely proportional with the potential ethanol yields per acre. The report, published in Ecologial Application also noted that sites dominated by small number of native tall prairie grass species, such as switchgrass, big bluestem, and indiangrass, had the highest yields. The CRP lands in the northeastern U.S. that has high proportion of tall native prairie grasses have the potential to produce more than 600 gallons of ethanol per acre and maintain its ecological importance.

View the story at http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2010/100319.htm