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Study casts doubt on climate benefit of biofuels from corn residue

Study casts doubt on climate benefit of biofuels from corn residue | News Releases | University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Quote:

The researchers, led by assistant professor Adam Liska, used a supercomputer model at UNL's Holland Computing Center to estimate the effect of residue removal on 128 million acres across 12 Corn Belt states. The team found that removing crop residue from cornfields generates an additional 50 to 70 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule of biofuel energy produced (a joule is a measure of energy and is roughly equivalent to 1 BTU). Total annual production emissions, averaged over five years, would equal about 100 grams of carbon dioxide per megajoule -- which is 7 percent greater than gasoline emissions and 62 grams above the 60 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as required by the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act.

Importantly, they found the rate of carbon emissions is constant whether a small amount of stover is removed or nearly all of it is stripped.

Q: STOVER?

A: (source: Wiki):

Stover is the leaves and stalks of field crops, such as corn (maize), sorghum or soybean that are commonly left in a field after harvesting the grain. It can be directly grazed by cattle or dried for use as fodder. It is similar to straw, the residue left after any cereal grain or grass has been harvested at maturity for its seed. Stover has attracted some attention as a potential fuel source, and as biomass for fermentation or as a feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production.[1] Corn stover has also attracted interest in mushroom compost preparation.

Oh good then they should keep removing the stover.

I think its pretty safe to say that 60% CO2 reduction goal set in 2007 is a joke.
The only way you are going to reduce CO2 production 60% is to give up everything, live in a cave, eat grass hoppers and grubs.
Funny thing is about 99% of these so called believers believe in it so much they arent willing to give up anything, not a single thing to "save the world", aside from using it as a justification for buying them selves a shiny new hybrid.

Quote:

Originally Posted by oil pan 4 (Post 421227)

I think its pretty safe to say that 60% CO2 reduction goal set in 2007 is a joke.
The only way you are going to reduce CO2 production 60% is to give up everything, live in a cave, eat grass hoppers and grubs.
Funny thing is about 99% of these so called believers believe in it so much they arent willing to give up anything, not a single thing to "save the world", aside from using it as a justification for buying them selves a shiny new hybrid.

That's a good point, we see too much finger-pointing but usually the ones who propose something to "save the world" are actually nothing more than a bunch of attention-seekers. Regarding corn residues (or any other agricultural residue) as a feedstock for biofuels, it seems to make more sense than using nukes and coal-fed powerplants to charge the batteries of an electric or a plug-in hybrid.

I'm not sure if it is a straw man :) but it would be ironic because one way to entrap atmospheric carbon is in biomass-come-soil.

Quote:

Originally Posted by P-hack (Post 421303)

...one way to entrap atmospheric carbon is in biomass-come-soil.

What does this mean?

Back in 06 we had more corn than we knew what to do with.

biomass gets churned/composted/whatever into dirt and sequesters carbon, that it took from the atmosphere.

All I know is the ranchers really like to feed that used corn mush to their cattle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by oil pan 4 (Post 421367)

All I know is the ranchers really like to feed that used corn mush to their cattle.

and the cows convert it to dirt! Kind of...