Carbon-Negative Biofuels from Low-Input High-Diversity Grassland Biomass
Biomass - Journal ArticleAuthor: David Tilman, Jason Hill, Clarence Lehman
Author Affiliation: Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul
Submitted: Thu, 09/17/2009 - 19:13
Edited: Thu, 09/17/2009 - 19:20
Published in: Science Magazine on 8 December 2006
Copyright Status: Not disclosed Link to source material: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/314/5805/1598 Description:
Biofuels derived from low-input high-diversity (LIHD) mixtures of native grassland perennials can provide more usable energy, greater greenhouse gas reductions, and less agrichemical pollution per hectare than can corn grain ethanol or soybean biodiesel. High-diversity grasslands had increasingly higher bioenergy yields that were 238% greater than monoculture yields after a decade. LIHD biofuelsare carbon negative because net ecosystem carbon dioxide sequestration (4.4 megagram hectare–1year–1 of carbon dioxide in soil and roots) exceeds fossil carbon dioxide release during biofuel production (0.32 megagram hectare–1 year–1). Moreover, LIHD biofuels can be produced on agriculturally degraded lands and thus need to neither displace food production nor cause loss of biodiversity via habitat destruction. Login to post comments
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