Available land for cellulosic biofuel production: a supply chain centered comparison
The land that is potentially available to produce dedicated cellulosic bioenergy crops, often referred to as ‘marginal’ land, depends heavily on the underlying assumptions used to classify and identify it. In this study we compare three definitions and types of marginal land to identify the interact...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ada301 |
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| author | E G O’Neill T J Lark Y Xie S Kim B E Dale G P Robertson B Basso C T Maravelias |
| author_facet | E G O’Neill T J Lark Y Xie S Kim B E Dale G P Robertson B Basso C T Maravelias |
| author_sort | E G O’Neill |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The land that is potentially available to produce dedicated cellulosic bioenergy crops, often referred to as ‘marginal’ land, depends heavily on the underlying assumptions used to classify and identify it. In this study we compare three definitions and types of marginal land to identify the interactions between the bioenergy landscape and the logistics networks needed for the biofuel supply chain. Typical studies of the scale, cost, and greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential of cellulosic biofuel take a land-centered approach which may neglect to account for the trade-offs between establishing bioenergy crops and the supply chain design decisions needed to allow those crops to be converted to liquid fuel. A mathematical programming approach is used to minimize the total annualized cost of a large-scale field-to-product system producing bioethanol in the USA midwest. Results show that a high concentration of marginal land leads to efficient systems and that the bioenergy landscape design becomes increasingly important with a higher emphasis on GHG mitigation. Additionally, targeted landscape design (including fertilization) with a focus on fields with high soil carbon sequestration potential can greatly reduce the system-wide GHG emissions for only a small increase in the unit cost of biofuel. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-5be919e28c46413a92038c1e295d1f54 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-5be919e28c46413a92038c1e295d1f542025-01-07T13:28:22ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262025-01-0120101406710.1088/1748-9326/ada301Available land for cellulosic biofuel production: a supply chain centered comparisonE G O’Neill0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6895-413XT J Lark1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4583-6878Y Xie2S Kim3B E Dale4G P Robertson5B Basso6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2090-4616C T Maravelias7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4929-1748Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University , Princeton, NJ, United States of America; DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center , Madison, WI, United States of AmericaDOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center , Madison, WI, United States of America; Nelson Institute Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), University of Wisconsin-Madison , Madison, WI, United States of AmericaDOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center , Madison, WI, United States of America; Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma , Norman, OK, United States of AmericaDOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center , Madison, WI, United States of America; Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Science, Michigan State University , East Lansing, MI, United States of AmericaDOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center , Madison, WI, United States of America; Department of Chemical Engineering and Material Science, Michigan State University , East Lansing, MI, United States of AmericaDOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center , Madison, WI, United States of America; W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University , Hickory Corners, MI, United States of America; Department of Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences, Michigan State University , East Lansing, MI, United States of AmericaDOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center , Madison, WI, United States of America; W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, Michigan State University , Hickory Corners, MI, United States of America; Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Michigan State University , East Lansing, MI, United States of AmericaDepartment of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University , Princeton, NJ, United States of America; DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center , Madison, WI, United States of America; Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University , Princeton, NJ 08540, United States of AmericaThe land that is potentially available to produce dedicated cellulosic bioenergy crops, often referred to as ‘marginal’ land, depends heavily on the underlying assumptions used to classify and identify it. In this study we compare three definitions and types of marginal land to identify the interactions between the bioenergy landscape and the logistics networks needed for the biofuel supply chain. Typical studies of the scale, cost, and greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation potential of cellulosic biofuel take a land-centered approach which may neglect to account for the trade-offs between establishing bioenergy crops and the supply chain design decisions needed to allow those crops to be converted to liquid fuel. A mathematical programming approach is used to minimize the total annualized cost of a large-scale field-to-product system producing bioethanol in the USA midwest. Results show that a high concentration of marginal land leads to efficient systems and that the bioenergy landscape design becomes increasingly important with a higher emphasis on GHG mitigation. Additionally, targeted landscape design (including fertilization) with a focus on fields with high soil carbon sequestration potential can greatly reduce the system-wide GHG emissions for only a small increase in the unit cost of biofuel.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ada301biofuelssupply chainbiomassmarginal landoptimizationbioenergy landscape design |
| spellingShingle | E G O’Neill T J Lark Y Xie S Kim B E Dale G P Robertson B Basso C T Maravelias Available land for cellulosic biofuel production: a supply chain centered comparison Environmental Research Letters biofuels supply chain biomass marginal land optimization bioenergy landscape design |
| title | Available land for cellulosic biofuel production: a supply chain centered comparison |
| title_full | Available land for cellulosic biofuel production: a supply chain centered comparison |
| title_fullStr | Available land for cellulosic biofuel production: a supply chain centered comparison |
| title_full_unstemmed | Available land for cellulosic biofuel production: a supply chain centered comparison |
| title_short | Available land for cellulosic biofuel production: a supply chain centered comparison |
| title_sort | available land for cellulosic biofuel production a supply chain centered comparison |
| topic | biofuels supply chain biomass marginal land optimization bioenergy landscape design |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ada301 |
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