IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/umaesp/13838.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Energy and Chemicals from Native Grasses: Production, Transportation and Processing Technologies Considered in the Northern Great Plains

Author

Listed:
  • Tiffany, Douglas G.
  • Jordan, Brendan
  • Dietrich, Erin
  • Vargo-Daggett, Becca

Abstract

Production of biomass from native prairie species offers the opportunity to produce energy and chemicals while providing substantial ecological services in the Northern Great Plains. This paper analyzes the application of rapid pyrolysis to produce bio-oil, which has the potential for use as a low-grade fuel oil or as a source for extraction of valuable chemicals. Yields of bio-oil, the quantities of extractable chemicals, and chemical prices drive the economics of this concept, which has a more extensive track record utilizing wood chips. A spreadsheet model was developed to determine gross margins available to defray costs to extract and refine such chemical products as hydroxyacetaldehyde, phenol, formic acid, acetic acid and various resins. Although efforts to hydrolyze anhydroglucose were successful, efforts to produce ethanol from the resulting six-carbon sugars were unsuccessful in a related trial. To understand the overall project economics, it was necessary to consider the availability and productivity of lands in the Northern Great Plains that can provide low cost native prairie grasses including Big Bluestem and Switchgrass. Production economics and transportation economics were analyzed to determine the costs of native prairie grasses delivered to a plant capable of pyrolyzing the biomass. Competing technologies that could also use native prairie grasses are considered as well as policy alternatives important for production of energy and chemicals from native prairie grasses.

Suggested Citation

  • Tiffany, Douglas G. & Jordan, Brendan & Dietrich, Erin & Vargo-Daggett, Becca, 2006. "Energy and Chemicals from Native Grasses: Production, Transportation and Processing Technologies Considered in the Northern Great Plains," Staff Papers 13838, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:umaesp:13838
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.13838
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/13838/files/p06-11.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.13838?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Duffy, Michael & Nanhou, Virginie, 2002. "Costs of Producing Switchgrass for Biomass in Southern Iowa," Staff General Research Papers Archive 10346, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    2. Tiffany, Douglas G. & Eidman, Vernon R., 2003. "Factors Associated With Success Of Fuel Ethanol Producers," Staff Papers 14155, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Miranowski, John & Rosburg, Alicia, 2010. "An Economic Breakeven Model of Cellulosic Feedstock Production and Ethanol Conversion with Implied Carbon Pricing," Staff General Research Papers Archive 13166, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    2. Lazarus, William F., 2008. "Energy Crop Production Costs and Breakeven Prices Under Minnesota Conditions," Staff Papers 45655, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    3. Reichling, J.P. & Kulacki, F.A., 2011. "Comparative analysis of Fischer–Tropsch and integrated gasification combined cycle biomass utilization," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 6529-6535.
    4. Brechbill, Sarah C. & Tyner, Wallace E., 2008. "The Economics Of Biomass Collection, Transportation, And Supply To Indiana Cellulosic And Electric Utility Facilities," Working papers 6148, Purdue University, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    5. Zhang, Ke & Johnson, Loretta & Vara Prasad, P.V. & Pei, Zhijian & Wang, Donghai, 2015. "Big bluestem as a bioenergy crop: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 740-756.
    6. Brechbill, Sarah C. & Tyner, Wallace E. & Ileleji, Klein E., 2008. "The economics of biomass collection and transportation and its supply to Indiana cellulosic and electric utility facilities," Risk, Infrastructure and Industry Evolution Conference, June 24-25, 2008, Berkeley, California 48732, Farm Foundation.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mooney, Daniel F. & Roberts, Roland K. & English, Burton C. & Tyler, Donald D. & Larson, James A., 2008. "Switchgrass Production in Marginal Environments: A Comparative Economic Analysis across Four West Tennessee Landscapes," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6403, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    2. Ali, Tariq & Huang, Jikun & Yang, Jun, 2013. "Impact assessment of global and national biofuels developments on agriculture in Pakistan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 466-474.
    3. Finco, Adele & Padella, Monica & Spinozzi, Romina & Benedetti, Andrea, 2010. "Biofuel And Policy Alternatives: A Farm Level Analysis," 14th ICABR Conference, June 16-18, 2010, Ravello, Italy 188088, International Consortium on Applied Bioeconomy Research (ICABR).
    4. Majeed, Fahd & Khanna, Madhu & Miao, Ruiqing & Betes, Elena Blanc & Hudiburg, Tara & DeLucia, Evan, 2022. "Payment for carbon mitigation reduces riskiness of bioenergy crop production," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322277, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Haque, Mohua & Biermacher, Jon T. & Kering, Maru K. & Guretzky, John A., 2012. "Managing Nitrogen and Phosphorus Nutrients for Switchgrass Produced for Bioenergy Feedstock in Phosphorus-Deficient Soil," 2012 Annual Meeting, February 4-7, 2012, Birmingham, Alabama 119765, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    6. Rhys T. Dale & Wallce E. Tyner, 2006. "Economic and Technical Analysis of Ethanol Dry Milling: MOdel User's Manual," Working Papers 06-05, Purdue University, College of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    7. Amigun, Bamikole & Petrie, Daniel & Görgens, Johann, 2011. "Economic risk assessment of advanced process technologies for bioethanol production in South Africa: Monte Carlo analysis," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 3178-3186.
    8. Outlaw, Joe L. & Burnquist, Heloisa Lee & Ribera, Luis A., 2007. "Bioenergy--Agricultural Issues and Outlook," 2007 NAAMIC Workshop IV: Contemporary Drivers of Integration 163901, North American Agrifood Market Integration Consortium (NAAMIC).
    9. Rhys T. Dale & Wallace E. Tyner, 2006. "Economic And Technical Analysis Of Ethanol Dry Milling: Model Description," Working Papers 06-04, Purdue University, College of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Economics.
    10. Schlosser, Janet A. & Leatherman, John C. & Peterson, Jeffrey M., 2008. "Are Biofuels Revitalizing Rural Economies? Projected Versus Actual Labor Market Impacts in the Great Plains," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6123, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    11. Viju, Crina & Kerr, William A., 2013. "Taking an option on the future: Subsidizing biofuels for energy security or reducing global warming," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 543-548.
    12. Miranowski, John & Rosburg, Alicia, 2010. "An Economic Breakeven Model of Cellulosic Feedstock Production and Ethanol Conversion with Implied Carbon Pricing," Staff General Research Papers Archive 13166, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    13. Jiang, Yong & Swinton, Scott M., 2008. "Market Interactions, Farmer Choices, and the Sustainability of Growing Advanced Biofuels," Staff Paper Series 43634, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    14. Kebede, Ellene & Duffy, Patricia A. & Zabawa, Robert, 2006. "The Effect of Ethanol Production on Agricultural Production in the State of Alabama," 2006 Annual Meeting, February 5-8, 2006, Orlando, Florida 35415, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    15. Eidman, Vernon R., 2005. "Agriculture's Role in Energy Production: Current Levels and Future Prospects," Energy from Agriculture: New Technologies, Innovative Programs and Success Stories, December 14-15, 2005, St. Louis, Missouri 7628, Farm Foundation.
    16. Baker, Erin & Keisler, Jeffrey M., 2011. "Cellulosic biofuels: Expert views on prospects for advancement," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 595-605.
    17. Eidman, Vernon R., 2007. "Economic Parameters for Corn Ethanol and Biodiesel Production," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 39(2), pages 1-12, August.
    18. Bishop, Carol D. & Curtis, Kynda R. & Kim, Man-Keun, 2010. "Conserving water in arid regions: Exploring the economic feasibility of alternative crops," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(8), pages 535-542, October.
    19. Hettinga, W.G. & Junginger, H.M. & Dekker, S.C. & Hoogwijk, M. & McAloon, A.J. & Hicks, K.B., 2009. "Understanding the reductions in US corn ethanol production costs: An experience curve approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 190-203, January.
    20. Miranowski, John A, 2007. "Biofuel Incentives and the Energy Title of the 2007 Farm Bill," ISU General Staff Papers 200705170700001565, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Resource /Energy Economics and Policy;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:umaesp:13838. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/daumnus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.