ARS researchers have calculated the on-farm costs
of growing switchgrass for ethanol. Click the image for more information
about it.
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Scientists Determine Farm Costs of Producing Switchgrass
for Ethanol
By Jan Suszkiw
March 6, 2008 Following up on a net-energy study
published in the January Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
(PNAS), a team of Agricultural Research
Service (ARS) and University of
Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) scientists today
reports the on-farm economic costs of producing switchgrass for cellulosic
ethanol.
In their PNAS energy-analysis paper, the team reported that switchgrass,
when used for cellulosic ethanol, yielded over five times more energy than
required to produce the fuel. In this month's edition of the journal
BioEnergy Research, the team describes their study's second part, which
examined the farm-scale production costs of switchgrass. Richard Perrin of UNL
and Ken
Vogel,
Marty
Schmer and
Rob
Mitchellall in the
ARS
Grain, Forage and Bioenergy Research Unit at Lincolnconducted the
studies.
According to Perrin and Vogel, this study is the most comprehensive one
completed to date assessing the economic costs of producing switchgrass biomass
on commercial fields. The team contracted with 10 farmers in Nebraska, North
Dakota and South Dakota to commercially grow switchgrass for five years,
starting in 2000 and 2001. Throughout the study, the farmers recorded all costs
for producing switchgrass biomass, from seed and fertilizer expenses to
equipment and labor costs. Total baled biomass yields were recorded for each
farm.
On average, switchgrass production costs were $60 per ton. Two farmers with
previous experience growing switchgrass were able to limit production costs to
$39 a ton. They were among a group of five farmers whose production costs were
$50 or less per ton. That's something farmers elsewhere could probably achieve
as they, too, gain production experience with switchgrass, the researchers
suggest. Based on the $50-per-ton figure, and assuming a conversion efficiency
of 80 to 90 gallons per ton, the farmgate production cost of cellulosic ethanol
from switchgrass would be about $0.55 to $0.62 per gallon.
Perrin and the ARS agronomists expect production costs will also decline as
new, "ethanol-friendly" cultivars are developed.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.