(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment/Phys.Org) … (A)llocating CRP land for high-yielding energy biomass might eliminate the need for bioenergy crops and food crops to vie for space.
A team led by CABBI Sustainability Theme Leader Madhu Khanna and Ph.D. student Luoye Chen developed an integrated modeling approach to assess the viability of transitioning CRP land in the eastern U.S. to perennial bioenergy crops. Their paper, published in
Environmental Science & Technology in January 2021, confirmed that the land-use transition is indeed viable provided that certain key conditions are met.
“As proponents of a safer, more sustainable bioeconomy, we must prioritize displacing fossil fuels,” said Khanna, who is also Acting Director of the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “As scientists, it is our responsibility to take a thoughtful, innov
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IMAGE: Luoye Chen (pictured) is a Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in CABBI Sustainability Theme Leader Madhu Khanna s lab group. Alongside the research team, Chen worked to develop. view more
Credit: CABBI communications staff
Researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) found that transitioning land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to bioenergy agriculture can be advantageous for American landowners, the government, and the environment.
Land enrolled in the CRP cannot currently be used for bioenergy crop production, wherein high-yielding plants (like miscanthus and switchgrass) are harvested for conversion into marketable bioproducts that displace fossil fuel- and coal-based energy. Established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1985, the CRP incentivizes landowners to retire environmentally degraded cropland, exchanging agricultural productivity for native habitats an