Extending switchgrass harvest over many months would require a smaller investment in harvest machines, but would result in a lower average harvestable yield per acre and would require more nitrogen fertilizer, less land for storage, and more land for growing switchgrass. A model was constructed...

The U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 mandates the production of 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels by 2022. Desirable feedstock properties, biomass to biofuel conversion rate, and investment required in plant and equipment differs depending on which of several competing...

First-generation grain ethanol biofuel has affected the historical excess capacity problem in U.S. agriculture. Second-generation cellulosic ethanol biofuel has had difficulty achieving cost-competitiveness. Third-generation drop-in biofuels are under development. If lignocellulosic biomass from...

Switchgrass and forage sorghum have both been proposed as potential candidates for high yielding, dedicated energy crops. This research was conducted to determine and compare the costs to produce and deliver switchgrass and forage sorghum biomass under the assumptions that the biomass would be...

Switchgrass has been proposed as a dedicated energy crop to fulfill long-term policy goals. Production costs were determined for switchgrass and three alternative perennial grass species for four levels of nitrogen fertilizer and two harvest systems. For the alternatives evaluated, biomass...