Indicators of the environmental sustainability of biofuel production, distribution, and use should be selected, measured, and interpreted with respect to the context in which they are used. The context of a sustainability assessment includes the purpose, the particular biofuel production and distribution system, policy conditions, stakeholder values, location, temporal influences, spatial scale, baselines, and reference scenarios.
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Agricultural sustainability considers the effects of farm activities on social, economic, and environmental conditions at local and regional scales. Adoption of more sustainable agricultural practices entails defining sustainability, developing easily measured indicators of sustainability, moving toward integrated agricultural systems, and offering incentives or imposing regulations to affect farmer behavior.
Landscape indicators, when combined with information about environmental conditions (such as habitat potential, biodiversity, carbon and nutrient cycling, and erosion) and socioeconomic forces, can provide insights about changing ecosystem services. They also provide information about opportunities for improving natural resources management. Landscape indicators rely on data regarding land cover, land management and land functionality.
Indicators are needed to assess both socioeconomic and environmental sustainability of bioenergy systems. Effective indicators can help to identify and quantify the sustainability attributes of bioenergy options. We identify 16 socioeconomic indicators that fall into the categories of social well-being, energy security, trade, profitability, resource conservation, and social acceptability. The suite of indicators is predicated on the existence of basic institutional frameworks to provide governance, legal, regulatory and enforcement services.
n the past decades, the production of biomass for energy in agriculture and forestry has increased in many parts of the world. For years to come, further increase in land use for bioenergy will be needed to meet the renewable energy ambitions of many countries, and to reduce fossil fuel use and associated GHG emissions.
A Map of the Iowa County-Level Study Area from the 2011 Billion Ton Study.
Nationwide spatial dataset representing the polygon areas for first-generation suitability analysis of potentially suitable areas for microalgae open ponds. The PNNL microalgae growth model results for each site are included in the attribute table and assume growth based on theoretical limits. Sites represent a minimum mapping unit of 490 hectares. Land suitability included area less than or equal to 1% slope on non-agricultural, undeveloped or low‐density developed, nonsensitive, generally noncompetitive land was considered for microalgal culture facilities.
An informal workshop focused on the implications of the US Billion Ton Update1 for understanding bioenergy sustainability was held at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee 28-30 September 2011. The workshop was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Biomass Program and the Center for BioEnergy
Biofuels are promoted in the United States through aggressive legislation, as one part of an overall strategy to lessen dependence on imported energy as well as to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (Office of the Biomass Program and Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, 2008). For example, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) mandates 36 billion gallons of renewable liquid transportation fuel in the U.S. marketplace by the year 2022 (U.S. Government, 2007).
This review on research on life cycle carbon accounting examines the complexities in accounting for carbon emissions given the many different ways that wood is used. Recent objectives to increase the use of renewable fuels have raised policy questions, with respect to the sustainability of managing our forests as well as the impacts of how best to use wood from our forests. There has been general support for the benefits of sustainably managing forests for carbon mitigation as expressed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007.
Microalgae are receiving increased global attention as a potential sustainable “energy crop”for biofuel production. An important step to realizing the potential of algae is quantifying the demands commercial‐scale algal biofuel production will place on water and land resources. We present a high‐resolution spatiotemporal assessment that brings to bear fundamental questions of where production can occur, how many land and water resources are required, and how much energy is produced.
Concerns about CO2 emissions and fossil fuel supplies have enhanced interest in using crop residues for biofuel production; however, maintaining soil organic C (SOC) through residue return is vital for maintaining soil productivity. Our objectives were to simulate long-term SOC dynamics using CQESTR and to examine the effect of residue harvest on SOC stocks under disking (DT) and conservation tillage (CS). A long-term study in the mid-Coastal Plain region of South Carolina was used to simulate four residue harvest rates (0, 50, 66, and 90%) during two harvest periods.
Corn (Zea mays L.) stover was identified as a renewable non-food agricultural feedstock for production of liquid fuels, biopower, and other bioproducts, but it is also needed for erosion control, carbon sequestration, and nutrient cycling.
Advanced biofuels will be developed using cellulosic feedstock rather than grain or oilseed crops that can also be used for food and feed. To be sustainable, these new agronomic production systems must be economically viable without degrading the soil and other natural resources. This review examines six agronomic factors that collectively define many of the limits and opportunities for harvesting crop residue for biofuel feedstock in the midwestern United States.
Application of biochar to highly weathered tropical soils has been shown to enhance soil quality and decrease leaching of nutrients. Little, however, is known about the effects of biochar applications on temperate region soils. Our objective was to quantify the impact of biochar on leaching of plant nutrients following application of swine manure to a typical Midwestern agricultural soil. Repacked soil columns containing 0, 5, 10, and 20 g-biochar kg− 1-soil, with and without 5 g kg− 1 of dried swine manure were leached weekly for 45 weeks.
Biochar, a co-product of thermochemical conversion of lignocellulosic materials into advanced biofuels, may be used as a soil amendment to enhance the sustainability of biomass harvesting. We investigated the impact of biochar amendments (0, 5, 10, and 20 g-biochar kg− 1 soil) on the quality of a Clarion soil (Mesic Typic Hapludolls), collected (0–15 cm) in Boone County, Iowa. Repacked soil columns were incubated for 500 days at 25 °C and 80% relative humidity.
To be sustainable, feedstock harvest must neither degrade soil, water, or air resources nor negatively impact productivity or subsequent crop yields. Simulation modeling will help guide the development of sustainable feedstock production practices, but not without field validation. This paper introduces field research being conducted in six states to support Sun Grant Regional Partnership modeling.
One-pass harvest equipment has been developed to collect corn (Zea mays L.) grain, stover, and cobs that can be used as bioenergy feedstock. Nutrients removed in these feedstocks have soil fertility implication and affect feedstock quality. The study objectives were to quantify nutrient concentrations and potential removal as a function of cutting height, plant organ, and physiological stage. Plant samples were collected in 10-cm increments at seven diverse geographic locations at two maturities and analyzed for multiple elements.
The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), investments in lignocellulosic biorefineries by both the Department of Energy (DOE) and commercial entities, as well as many other market, security, and policy drivers, have increased public interest in harvesting nongrain biomass (i.e., crop residues) from our lands. This interest is positive because it is creating investment and entrepreneurial opportunities in many rural communities.
The global indirect land use change (ILUC) implications of biofuel use in the United States of America (USA) from 2001 to 2010 are evaluated with a dynamic general equilibrium model. The effects of biofuels production on agricultural land area vary by year; from a net expansion of 0.17ha per 1000 gallons produced (2002) to a net contraction of 0.13ha per 1000 gallons (2018) in Case 1 of our simulation. In accordance with the general narrative about the implications of biofuel policy, agricultural land area increased in many regions of the world. However, oil-export dependent economies e