Biofuel, land and water: maize, switchgrass or Miscanthus?
Open accessAbstract
The productive cellulosic crops switchgrass and Miscanthus are considered as viable biofuel sources. To meet the 2022 national biofuel target mandate, actions must be taken, e.g., maize cultivation must be intensified and expanded, and other biofuel crops (switchgrass and Miscanthus ) must be cultivated. This raises questions on the use efficiencies of land and water; to date, the demand on these resources to meet the national biofuel target has rarely been analyzed. Here, we present a data-model assimilation analysis, assuming that maize, switchgrass and Miscanthus will be grown on currently available croplands in the US. Model simulations suggest that maize can produce 3.0–5.4 kiloliters (kl) of ethanol for every hectare of land, depending on the feedstock to ethanol conversion efficiency; Miscanthus has more than twice the biofuel production capacity relative to maize, and switchgrass is the least productive of the three potential sources of ethanol. To meet the biofuel target, about 26.5 million hectares of land and over 90 km 3 of water (of evapotranspiration) are needed if maize grain alone is used. If Miscanthus was substituted for maize, the process would save half of the land and one third of the water. With more advanced biofuel conversion technology for Miscanthus , only nine million hectares of land and 45 km 3 of water would probably meet the national target. Miscanthus could be a good alternative biofuel crop to maize due to its significantly lower demand for land and water on a per unit of ethanol basis.
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Unchanged or even increased SOC stocks were found in various environments despite aboveground biomass removal due to high belowground C input.
“For example, unchanged or even increased SOC stocks were found in various environments despite aboveground biomass removal due to the high belowground C input (Martani et al.,2021; Xu et al.,2021; Zhuang et al.,2013).”
From Marginal land conversion to perennial energy crops with biomass removal enhances soil carbon sequestration (2022) · cites this paper as Zhuang et al.,2013
The Results and discussion section says the study estimated biomass production and water loss but did not analyze carbon sequestration. A note on stover harvest mentions returning some biomass to soil for soil-carbon sustainability, but our copy does not report unchanged or increased SOC stocks, or attribute such a result to belowground carbon inputs. Searched for SOC stocks, belowground carbon input, and soil-carbon sustainability. (LLM, conf=0.76)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredLand and climate are two major resources required for additional biomass production.
“Land and climate are two major resources required for additional biomass production [44,61,62].”
From Biomass and biofuels in China: Toward bioenergy resource potentials and their impacts on the environment (2018) · cites this paper as [61]
Water availability and WUE are major factors determining available land for energy cropping and reallocating or introducing crop species.
“Water availability [91,92] and WUE [61,93,94] are major factors determining available land for energy cropping and reallocating or introducing crop species.”
From Biomass and biofuels in China: Toward bioenergy resource potentials and their impacts on the environment (2018) · cites this paper as [61]
Marginal land availability is constrained by multiple factors.
“Marginal land availability is constrained by multiple factors, its future quantification in China should well consider not only land productivity [15,39] but also a synergy of crop species choice (conventional vs. cellulosic crops) [61,93], infrastructure viability (e.g., transportation) [93,103], and environmental availability and sustainability (e.g., water availability, soil quality) [82,105].”
From Biomass and biofuels in China: Toward bioenergy resource potentials and their impacts on the environment (2018) · cites this paper as [61]
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References 45 · Cited by 96
- Authors
- Zhuang, Q., Qin, Z., & Chen, M.
- Affiliations
- Purdue University West Lafayette (US)
- Corresponding author
- Zhuang, Qianlai
- Qin, Zhangcai
- Venue
- Environmental Research Letters
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Published
- 2013-02-19
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 015020
- ISSN
- 1748-9326 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2145371680
- Cited by
- 96
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 6
- FWCI
- 28.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Environmental Research Letters (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (1028291, 0630319)
- U.S. Department of Energy (DE‐FG02‐, FG02-08ER64599)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NNX09AI26G, NASA- NNX09AI26G)
- Purdue University
- Division of Information and Intelligent Systems (NSF-1028291)
- Center for Advanced Study, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Bioenergy crop production and management
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Biofuel production and bioconversion
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Keywords
- cellulosic biofuels, maize, switchgrass, Miscanthus, ethanol production, land use, water consumption, evapotranspiration, United States
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