For release: Nov. 22, 2002
Major Biomass Study Under Way at SDSU
BROOKINGS, S.D. -- South Dakota State University has received a grant to study the viability of growing native grasses for liquid fuels production in the northern plains.
In cooperation with regional partners, SDSU will help identify the best
opportunities to grow perennial grasses for biofuels production in South
Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota.
Kevin Kephart, director of the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment
Station, said the grant will expand work that already has been going on
at SDSU. The SDSU research will make up more than half of the $1 million
project budget awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy and coordinated
by the Minneapolis-based Great Plains Institute for Sustainable Development.
"We are very pleased with the development of this partnership with the Great Plains Institute for Sustainable Development," said Fred Cholick, dean of SDSU's College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences. "Involvement of agriculture in domestic energy production is a major new emphasis of the SDSU College of Agriculture and Biological Sciences. We appreciate the Institute's support of our research and look forward to working with them and the Department of Energy in implementing these future technologies."
Kephart added that the grant's emphasis on energy fits in well with SDSU's work as part of the Sun Grant Initiative. The Sun Grant Initiative is a plan under development to use the land-grant universities to develop energy and other non-traditional products from agriculture.
SDSU's portion of the grant involves developing switchgrass varieties for the region; evaluating management practices for growing native grasses for biomass; evaluating the effects of biomass harvesting on soils and carbon storage; and evaluating the effects of biomass harvesting on bird populations.
As part of the same grant, the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks will receive separate funding to study a concept for producing biofuels and chemicals from native grasses. The EERC will work with a company called Ensyn Group Inc. Using native grasses provided by SDSU, the EERC will derive a series of bio-oils which will be evaluated to determine their potential usefulness in producing ethanol or other products such as lactic and other carboxylic acids, ethyl lactate and other esters.
As yet another segment of the same grant, the Great Plains Institute
for Sustainable Development will receive funding to do an economic analysis
to identify where native grass feedstocks for bio-ethanol production can
most profitably be grown in the region. In tandem with the research, the
Institute will work with regional stakeholders to develop a set of best-practice
biomass policy objectives aimed at advancing the northern plains as a leader
in renewable energy and fuels development.
The grant began Aug. 1, 2002, and continues through Aug. 31, 2005,
though SDSU's biomass research will continue even after the grant expires.
The U.S. Department of Energy is interested in developing technology for converting plant material or "biomass" to liquid fuels and electrical power from such sources as switchgrass. SDSU is working with switchgrass, Indiangrass and big bluestem.
Here's a closer look at the SDSU components of the research:
* Genetics. SDSU forage breeder Arvid Boe will continue to focus on
genetics, specifically in evaluating existing switchgrass cultivars that
perform best for the region and developing new cultivars specifically designed
for biomass production in South Dakota and neighboring states.
* Management. SDSU forage researcher Vance Owens is looking at monocultures of switchgrass, Indiangrass and big bluestem, as well as two- and three-species polycultures of those species. He'll evaluate production, fiber characteristics and potential for energy conversion. He'll look at different harvest patterns, harvesting some test plots every year and some every other year. He'll also evaluate how harvesting in late summer compares with harvest after a hard frost. The grasses will be grown at locations in South Dakota, Minnesota and North Dakota.
* Soils. SDSU soil scientist Jim Doolittle and colleagues Doug Malo and Tom Schumacher are evaluating biomass production's impact on soils and carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration refers to the amount of carbon that is tied up in soils and plants under various cropping patterns. Doolittle said research has shown that there have been benefits in soil quality and carbon sequestration because of the Conservation Reserve Program, which has contracted with farmers to take fragile lands out of production and sow cover crops. Doolittle said SDSU research will look at how soil quality and carbon sequestration changes if producers harvest biomass.
* Wildlife. SDSU will evaluate and compare the effect of switchgrass monocultures and warm-season grass mixtures on bird biodiversity or species richness. SDSU also will evaluate habitat changes on established grasslands used to produce and harvest biomass material. SDSU wildlife researcher Ken Higgins said research will take place at fields in South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Nebraska. Bird measurements will be taken on land that has been harvested compared to land that has remained idle.
Contact: Kevin Kephart, (605) 688-4149
** For links to other sites showcasing SDSU's work in teaching, research, and Extension, visit http://sdces.sdstate.edu.
Lance Nixon, Editor
AgBio Communications Unit
South Dakota State University
ACC, Box 2231, Rm 200
Brookings, SD 57007
Telephone: (605) 688-4653
Lance_Nixon@sdstate.edu