Agronomic Biorenewable Fact Sheets

• Switchgrass
• Miscanthus

Research Highlights

• On the cusp of an agricultural transformation: Integrating new cropping systems with advanced biomass conversion technologies
• Spinning cornstalks into bioenergy gold: Maximizing biomass production while minimizing the impact of removing crop residues

Join the Debate

• Watch two ISU Agronomy graduate students, Julia Olmstead and Andrew Heggenstaller, present a point/counter-point presentation on the pros and cons of the ethanol industry including its impact on the environment.
• Visit the Des Moines Register Biofuels Brain Bank Blog to exchange ideas with bioeconomy experts including Agronomy Professor Steve Fales

Research Opportunities in Biomass Production and Sustainability

There are many challenges in producing large quantities of biomass in a sustainable manner. They involve: feedstock production and environmental sustainability, soil conservation, soil organic matter, and nutrient management. The more immediate goals in biomass production and sustainability would be to maximize biomass production in legacy crops. The long term goal would be to identify and improve new bioenergy crops. Several individual research proposals are in development by ISU Agronomy faculty in the below areas. To learn more about specific projects listed below contact agron@iastate.edu.

Feedstock Production and Environmental Sustainability

Optimizing Feedstock Production: Biomass production is about the capture and conversion of solar energy. The conventional corn-soybean rotation utilizes only 60% of the potential growing season in the upper Midwest. Cropping systems will be optimized to identify the most promising combinations of herbaceous and woody species and cultivars for feedstock production.

• Production of Cellulosic Bioenergy Feedstocks, Steve Fales (coordinator), Stuart Birrell, Rick Cruse, Lance Gibson, Matt Liebman, Ken Moore
• Monolignol Biosynthesis Genes in Maize, Thomas Luebberstedt

Alternative Crops: The strategic integration of large-scale herbaceous and woody biomass species within corn-based agricultural landscapes will assist in meeting society’s energy demands while improving agroecosystem health and function.

• Joint Improvement in Populus deltoides Wood Quality and Biomass Yield, Richard B. Hall


• Integrating Woody Biomass Plantations into Midwestern Agricultural Landscapes, Richard B. Hall and Lisa A. Schulte


• Using Winter Triticale to Produce Biomass and Conserve Natural Resources, Lance Gibson


• Canola Production for Biofuels, Lance Gibson

Plant Breeding: Plant breeders will screen germplasm of existing herbaceous and woody species as well as evaluate the potential of new species. Breeding programs will be initiated for biomass improvement and maximizing biomass conversion to carbohydrates.

Harvest and storage: The development of efficient harvest and densification systems will be necessary to collect, transport, and store large quantities of biomass feedstock. The development of systems capable of pretreatment of the biomass during storage could signifi cantly increase the effi ciency of downstream bioprocessing operations. This research will capitalize on well developed relationships with agriculture machinery companies.

Soil Conservation and Organic Matter:

Soil Erosion: The development and implementation of new cropping systems will reduce soil erosion from the current rates of 4.6 tons/acre (water) and 0.5 tons/acre (wind) for corn and soybean production systems. Research will be designed to assess the impact cropping systems on soil erosion.

• Sustaining Soils While Producing Biofuels, Tom Loynachan, Robert Horton, and Rick Cruse
• Evaluation of Corn Biomass Removal for Bioeconomical Use Impacts on Soil, Water, and Air Resources, Mahdi Al-Kaisi, Antonio Mallarino, and John Sawyer

Landscape Informatics: Remote sensing and GPS will be used to manage landscapes to optimize biomass productivity and to manage inventory of biomass. Landscape and watershed level tools and models will be developed to understand the spatial variability of soil properties and processes as they impact biomass production.

Improving Soil Organic Matter (SOM): Prairie-derived soils naturally are rich in SOM giving rise to the incredible production capacity of upper Midwest soils. SOM is also a primary sink for carbon. Cropping systems and crops will be designed that lead to an increase in SOM, which will maintain soil productivity while serving as a net carbon sink.

• Soil Management for Production of Biomass, Randy Killorn and Lee Burras

Nutrient Management:

Nutrient Use Efficiency: Biofuel production systems will need to maximize biomass production while minimizing discharges of nutrients into ground and surface water. Research on plant rhizospheres, cropping systems, and plant breeding will allow us to improve nutrient uptake effi ciencies and minimize synthetic nutrient applications.

Nutrient cycling: Current information indicates that residues from biomass processing contain valuable nutrients that potentially could be utilized in growing biomass crops. Research is needed on the feasibility of recycling these nutrients back to the soil.

Water Use Efficiency: Plant breeding and genetic technologies will be used to improve the water use efficiency of plants, thus improving the stability of performance and minimizing water use.

New Century Farm:

ISU will establish the New Century Farm, which would be the first integrated, sustainable (productive, diverse and resilient) biofuel feedstock production farm in the U.S. Creation of the NCF will allow for Iowa and Iowa State University to lead the nation in the biorenewables revolution.