The Energy Policy Act of 2005 includes a provision designed to double the production and use of ethanol in fuels by 2012, and that beginning in 2013, a minimum of 250 million gallons per year of ethanol be produced from lignocellulosic sources such as corn stover, wheat straw, and switchgrass....

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...

The logistics of providing an orderly flow of lignocellulosic feedstock to a biorefinery have not been addressed by most biorefinery feasibility studies. A mixed integer mathematical programming model is developed that includes integer decision variables enabling investment in harvest machines...

Biomass yield to nitrogen response functions were determined for four perennial grass species. The species, nitrogen level, and harvest frequency that maximize expected net returns given the climate and soils of the U.S. Southern Plains were determined. For most combinations of biomass and...

A reasonably precise estimate of the number of harvest days is necessary to determine the investment in harvest machines required to support a lignocellulosic biorefinery. This study was undertaken to determine probability distributions for the number of suitable field work days per month for...

While theoretically more efficient than starch-based ethanol production systems, conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol is not without major challenges. A multi-region, multi-period, mixed integer mathematical programming model encompassing alternative feedstocks, feedstock production,...

Legislation passed in 2002 enables managed harvesting and grazing of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land, including harvesting of biomass. The objective of the research is to determine the cost to acquire, harvest, store, and deliver a steady flow of biomass from CRP grasslands to a biorefinery.

The objective of this paper is to determine production costs of switchgrass, eastern gammagrass, and giant miscanthus using Mississippi and Oklahoma data. Production costs were computed using a standard enterprise budgeting approach by species and method of harvest. Results indicate cost...