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WERA1016: Adaptation, Quality and Management of Sustainable Cellulosic Biofuel Crops in the West

Annual/Termination Reports (SAES-422): [08/03/2011] [11/26/2012]

Date of Annual Report: 08/03/2011

Report Information:
  • Annual Meeting Dates: 06/20/11 to 06/22/11
  • Period the Report Covers: 10/2010 to 09/2011

    • Participants:
    Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting:
    Provide information with a focus on the decisions made. As an alternative, provide an attachment of your meeting minutes.

    The inaugural meeting of WERA 1016 "Adaptation, Quality and Management of Sustainable Cellulosic Biofuel Crops in the West" was conducted from June 20-22, 2011 and was hosted by Steve Fransen and Hal Collins at WSU-Prosser in Prosser, WA. In addition to research reports and discussions, we toured various bioenergy labs at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, WA and viewed various bioenergy crops growing in small and field test plots at Columbia Basin College in Pasco and at the WSU-Prosser station. Bioenergy and biofuel discussions were scheduled the day before and after the all-day field tour. A complete agenda of the meeting is provided as appendix A.

    A complete listing of WERA 1016 members and participants of the June, 2011 meeting is provided. Nearly all members of WERA 1016 were able to attend, which produced a great deal of discussion and understanding of the current state of affairs in biofuel research and Extension programming in the west. This also provided opportunities to collaboratively develop small and large teams within the region for competitive national grants. Ralph Cavalieri presented the update from the Western Directors and what he sees as the future for many issues facing our group and the budget crisis that will surely impact future grant programs.

    The tour was the highlight for every participant. We started the tour with our member Tim Woodward at CBC at Pasco where he is developing switchgrass for the irrigated western region and non-lodging alfalfa also for biofuel. Next stop was at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland. Our member Dan Howe arranged for the group to tour the various labs starting with development and testing of catylists through conversion of biomass in a large-scale gasifier. We ended the tour back at Prosser where members Steve Fransen and Hal Collins showed a 10 acre irrigated switchgrass study to measure WUE of switchgrass to corn and sweet sorghum. This was followed by small plots dating back to 2002, the first switchgrass plots grown at Prosser. A BBQ that evening allowed members to visit and reflect on the enormous task at hand when introducing new approaches from old and new crops for biofuel and biomass. The meeting ended after the third morning of meetings and discussion. New officers elected for the next years are: Chair - Marisol Berti; Vice-Chair - Glenn Shewmaker; Secretary - Steve Sparrow. It was agreed that Steve Fransen will continue to work with the new committee and assist in coordination of WERA 1016 efforts to develop collaborative grants. The next meeting will be hosted by Dr. Berti in North Dakota in 2012. Meeting ended about noon on June 22, 2011.

    Agenda for this meeting appears in the attachment for Meeting Minutes following.


    URL: Copy of minutes

    Accomplishments:
    Two accomplishments can be highlighted in this report. First, this meeting provided an opportunity for members to share their interests in modern dryland or irrigated biofuel crops grown in the western region. This will lead to greater cooperation in research and Extension projects and grants in the future. Secondly, members of this WERA group have submitted a USDA Foundational grant to promote a Western Region Biofuel Conference that is scheduled for late March, 2012 in Reno, NV. This is the first of other grants focusing on oil seed and cellulosic biofuel grants aimed at production and conversion to assist in meeting the national RFS2 biofuel goals.

    Impact Statements:
    1. The impacts from our first meeting cannot be measured at this time. It will take several years and successful funded grants. It will also take some time for our WERA 1016 group to mature thereby becoming competitive for national grants.
    Last Modified: 31-Aug-2011

    Date of Annual Report: 11/26/2012

    Report Information:
  • Annual Meeting Dates: 08/06/12 to 08/08/12
  • Period the Report Covers: 10/2011 to 09/2012

    • Participants:
    Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting:
    Summary

    The annual meeting was conducted from August 6-8, 2012 and was hosted by Marisol Berti at North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND. Six members of the committee representing six different states attended the meeting. Also other researchers and students from North Dakota State University (NDSU) and University of North Dakota (UND) joined us in the meeting and field tour increasing the attendance to 17.

    The meeting started with a presentation from the Chair from the Department of Plant Sciences Dr. Horsley. After that Dr. Marisol Berti presented the advances in biomass research in the state of North Dakota. All committee members presented a 30 minutes summary of their research on biomass crops production or conversion. We had a field tour on Tuesday to the North Dakota State University Fargo and Prosper Experimental Stations. Among the crops shown on the tour were forage sorghum, switchgrass, miscanthus, cool-season grasses in mixtures with alfalfa, cover crops use for bioenergy crops, forage brassicas for forage and energy, and winter camelina-forage sorghum double and relay-cropping systems.

    The meeting ended with a business meeting where an interesting discussion of the future plans for this group took place and also the possibilities of developing a proposal template in biomass crop production for the committee to be prepared ahead of time to apply for funding for bioenergy crops research in the Western states when the opportunities arise.

    Minutes of Business Meeting Section

    August 8, 2012

    Attendees:

    Marisol Berti, Girisha Ganjegunte, Daniel Howe, Glenn Shewmaker, Stephen Sparrow, Kurt Thelen, David Saxowsky, David Ripplinger, Thein Maung.

    The goals for this meeting were to develop collaborative efforts among the Western States on research and outreach in cellulosic biomass feedstock production and use in the West, to develop plans for the next WERA 1016 meeting, and elect officers for the coming year.

    We discussed future activities for the WERA 1016 group and decided we need activities other than just annual meetings. As such, we decided a major effort should be put into seeking grant funds to support collaborative research and outreach efforts among members of the group and others. We did this because we recognize that we can gain synergism from collaborative efforts among different states in the West and that funding efforts are likely to be more successful for multi-state and multi-disciplinary proposals. With that in mind, we decided we need to know what the opportunities and obstacles for successful cellulosic biofuel production and uses are in the West and that we need a set of defined objectives around which to build proposals.

    The group decided we should work on developing a proposal template rather than a specific proposal so as to be poised to write proposals tailored to specific request for proposals when opportunities arise. We discussed developing a white paper on opportunities for biomass production in the western states which could serve as a spring board for developing a proposal template, although we decide to start building the proposal template first. The group also decided we should not focus on any particular biomass crop species since different crops are adapted to different soils and climates in the West and since bio-refineries are not likely to rely on a single crop. We also discussed and agreed we should seek industry support, in part because having such support will likely increase the probability of success with grants but also could be a way to garner funding. The group discussed what portions of the biomass energy chain should be included and decided that while the focus should be on sustainable feedstock production, we should also include harvest, pre-treatment and storage, transportation, and conversion and that life-cycle analyses should be part of any proposal we put forward.

    The groups decided the proposal template outline should include nine main topics (but emphasis could vary somewhat depending on RFP). The nine topics are:

    1. Resources (e.g. soils, water, climate, including opportunities for use of marginal resources such as marginal land, waste water).
    2. Sustainable cellulosic feedstock production (specific crops and production practices may vary across sub-regions within the West).
    3. Pre-treatment (e.g. densification, torrefaction)
    4. Transportation and logistics
    5. Conversion (emphasis on transportation fuels, use of waste products such a lignin, and other chemicals)
    6. Economics
    7. Life-cycle analysis
    8. Social and rural development
    9. Enabling technologies

    We also agreed that each proposal should have an education/outreach component, and a commercialization component.

    Kurt Thelen shared a list obstacles to bioenergy cropping systems which was developed from a survey of agronomist in central U.S. (attached as appendix) which we agreed will be useful as a starting point for developing ideas for the body of a proposal template.

    David Saxowsky suggested that the coordinator of the proposal template not necessarily had to be the principal investigator of the proposal when the opportunity arises. Then, Marisol Berti volunteered to get the proposal template going and seek for information from the group to complete it.

    The group discussed and agreed we should develop and maintain a website for WERA1016 Marisol Berti volunteered to host the website at NDSU but in further inquiry about it, we might be able to use the already in place NIMMS website where we can upload information and documents. We also agreed the secretary should periodically send out an e-mail message to members for updates on relevant activities to be included in an occasional newsletter and/or the website.

    Glenn Shewmaker agreed to host the 2013 WERA 1016 meeting in Idaho, most likely in Idaho Falls, which is where the Idaho National Laboratory is located. We also agreed to tentatively plan the 2014 meeting to be in Alaska (hosted by Steve Sparrow) and the 2015 meeting to be in Texas (hosted by Girisha Ganjegunte).

    Officers for the coming year are:

    Glenn Shewmaker, chair
    Marisol Berti, past-chair
    Stephen Sparrow, chair-elect
    Girisha Ganjegunte, secretary

    Individual Project Reports can found on the WERA-1016 Homepage under the tab "Additional Documents" at the following link:
    http://lgu.umd.edu/lgu_v2/homepages/home.cfm?trackID=12416

    Accomplishments:
    Results from a March, 2010, straw poll of 12 Agronomists representing (Univ. of Wisconsin, Univ. of Minnesota, Univ. of Illinois, Univ. of Guelph, Louisiana State Univ., Univ. of Arkansas, Mississippi State Univ., Purdue Univ. Michigan State Univ.

    The question was: What do you see as the top two challenges associated with establishing bioenergy crops on the agricultural landscape?

    Agronomics of integrating bioenergy crops with conventional crops

    Storage and handling of bioenergy crops

    WSPG lag period to peak yields

    Environmental/Sustainability

    Food vs. fuel

    Marketing/Economics