Source: MICHIGAN STATE UNIV submitted to NRP
SUSTAINABLE AGROENERGY SYSTEMS: UNDERSTANDING AND ADVANCING FOUR "WIN-WIN" EXAMPLES
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1018026
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jan 1, 2019
Project End Date
Dec 31, 2023
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Recipient Organization
MICHIGAN STATE UNIV
(N/A)
EAST LANSING,MI 48824
Performing Department
Chemical Engineering
Non Technical Summary
Current global trajectories for food and energy production are unsustainable. There are currently over seven billion people on the planet and another two billion are expected in the next few decades. Therefore food production must expand significantly and soon. But current food production practices tend to deplete soil and degrade water supplies. Modern agriculture uses enormous quantities of fossil energy both directly and indirectly and is thereby a major greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter.If we expand land under cultivation to supply food, then biodiversity will be further undermined and additional GHGs will likely be released. Also, modern agriculture depends heavily on synthetic pesticides and herbicides with many resulting adverse effects. Thus agriculture must become much more environmentally sustainable and simultaneously greatly increase food output. This is a formidable challenge.Lack of energy access is at the root of human poverty, particularly poverty in rural areas. To provide energy services that will lift people from poverty we must also rapidly expand energy production. But about 85% of current energy use is based on fossil energy. If we expand energy production based on fossil energy resources, we will accelerate buildup of atmospheric greenhouse gases. Furthermore, if we rely on fossil fuels to provide energy services, we will commit scarce capital and other resources to a "dead end". Fossil fuel resources are depleting rapidly. They will soon be either too expensive to use and/or too environmentally-damaging to continue using as rapidly as we are.Instead we should be removing large quantities of carbon from the atmosphere and sequestering it in stable forms. Fortunately for the "win-win" agroenergy scenarios described here, one such stable form of carbon is soil organic matter. Increased soil organic matter will also increase soil fertility, increase drought resilience and better retain mineral nutrients.Agriculture is an industry. Like other industries, agriculture must be financially healthy if it is to innovate and become more sustainable. But prices of crop commodities globally are at historically low levels and many farmers are going bankrupt. Thus agriculture must also become more economically sustainable, i.e., more profitable. How will agriculture innovate and become more sustainable if it cannot generate the required cash flow? Simply increasing production of traditional crops will not suffice; these markets are already saturated and further increasing crop production without other systemic changes will likely further depress crop prices.One important part of the answer is that agriculture can, should and must become a large, sustainable producer of energy as well as the driver for many positive environmental outcomes.Having multiple markets for agricultural products (e.g., food, feed and energy) will increase agricultural sector income, and, in some cases, will also reduce farm operating costs. By providing important environmental services, agriculture can also become more economically profitable and will enjoy a level of societal prestige that it does not currently enjoy, but that it badly needs.Our proposed solution is to identify "win-win" approaches that economically benefit agriculture and agricultural communities while simultaneously contributing to the solution of other large societal concerns. These concerns include: feeding a growing world population, providing large amounts of renewable, low-carbon energy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing soil fertility, increasing wildlife habitat and improving water quality.This project is focusd around three specific research subtopics that my collaborators and I will pursue in the next five years. All three are centered on sustainable agriculture and integrate food/feed production with large scale, low carbon energy. All three are focused at the farm/local level and represent "win-win" opportunities for farmers to increase their income and while also improving their environmental performance. Data for the analysis are from our work and that of our collaborators; and, we will work together on the modeling, analysis and writing of the papers. Work on these three research topics will benefit the State of Michigan, the nation, and the world.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
50%
Developmental
50%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
40274102020100%
Knowledge Area
402 - Engineering Systems and Equipment;

Subject Of Investigation
7410 - General technology;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering;
Goals / Objectives
Agriculture is an industry. Like other industries, agriculture must be financially healthy if it is to innovate and become more sustainable. But prices of crop commodities globally are at historically low levels and many farmers are going bankrupt. Thus agriculture must also become more economically sustainable, i.e., more profitable.How will agriculture innovate and become more sustainable if it cannot generate the required cash flow? Simply increasing production of traditional crops will not suffice; these markets are already saturated and further increasing crop production without other systemic changes will likely further depress crop prices. One important part of the answer is that agriculture can, should and must become a large, sustainable producer of energy as well as the driver for many positive environmental outcomes.Having multiple markets for agricultural products (e.g., food, feed and energy) will increase agricultural sector income, and, in some cases, will also reduce farm operating costs. By providing important environmental services, agriculture can also become more economically profitable and will enjoy a level of societal prestige that it does not currently enjoy, but that it badly needs.Our proposed solution is to identify "win-win" approaches that economically benefit agriculture and agricultural communities while simultaneously contributing to the solution of other large societal concerns. These concerns include: feeding a growing world population, providing large amounts of renewable, low carbon energy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing soil fertility, increasing wildlife habitat and improving water quality.This project embraces three specific research topics that my collaborators and I will pursue in the next five years. All three are centered on sustainable agriculture and integrate food/feed production with large scale, low carbon energy. All three are focused at the farm/local level and represent "win-win" opportunities for farmers to increase their income and while also improving their environmental performance.Data for the analysis are largely supplied by my collaborators and by data previously obtained in my lab and published. All additional necessary laboratory and field work will be done by my collaborators. My role will be to participate in the modeling and help in writing the papers. Together we will explore how coproduction of food/feed/energy can simultaneously benefit farmers, society and the environment in three distinct areas.These three areas include: 1) Production of liquid biofuels in the U. S. Midwest and High Plains based on ammonia pretreatment of biomass in regional/local processing facilities called "depots" to produce both enhanced animal feeds and biofuel feedstocks, 2) incorporating ammonia pretreatments in existing sugarcane processing systems to upgrade cane leaf matter and/or bagasse, and 3) on-farm production of biogas from wastes and ensiled double crops to produce electricity and/or biomethane couple with recycle of digestate to sequester carbon and recycle nutrients.The State of Michigan, the nation, and the world will benefit from the knowledge and insights gained in this project.
Project Methods
The project proposal describes three specific research topics that my collaborators and I will pursue in the next five years. All three are centered on sustainable agriculture and integrate food/feed production with large scale, low carbon energy. All three are focused at the farm/local level and represent "win-win" opportunities for farmers to increase their income and while also improving their environmental performance. The first research topic is centered in the U.S., the second is centered in Brazil and the third is primarily focused in Italy and the European Union (EU). The methods employed in each of the three research topics will be briefly treated below.First research topic: U.S. Corn Belt and Great Plains. Agricultural data, including regional biomass yield and total biomass production, marginal land availability, agronomic inputs, and soil dynamics (e.g., soil organic carbon levels, nitrogen losses), are the key input parameters required to model these agroenergy systems. Using Department of Energy funding through the Bioenergy Research Centers program, we will be simultaneously working with the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) to develop a plant-landscape model to estimate marginal land availability, its biomass productivity, and county-level environmental consequences and the results from this model will be used in the analysis. The detailed results will provide geographical distribution information of marginal lands in the Corn Belt and High Plains, regional biomass productivity (switchgrass, biomass sorghum, etc.), fertilizer consumption, fuel consumption, soil organic carbon changes, and soil nitrogen emissions.Annual and perennial grasses in those areas will be processed in depots along with corn stover. Corn stover is a feedstock in all the Midwestern agroenergy systems we consider. In previous GLBRC studies, we have done high resolution (56 x 56m) simulations for corn stover and winter rye in the Midwest. The high resolution data includes corn stover collection rate per acre, total acreages involved in the system, soil organic carbon level and soil nitrogen losses. The high resolution data for winter rye as a double crop are also available from previous GLBRC studies.The farm-gate prices of each biomass material will be estimated based on agronomic input costs, operating costs (e.g., planting, buying and applying fertilizer, harvesting, baling, labor, etc.), and land rental fees for marginal land. The rental fee for marginal land is equal to the rental fee for pasture land. In the depot-based decentralized system, farmers would receive economic benefits from selling the pretreated pellets at a farmer-owned depot facility; hence no profit is included in the farm-gate price.The locations of depots and their associated biorefineries greatly influence logistics costs and the resulting environmental impacts as well as the biorefinery sizes, with their attending economies of scale. Existing grain elevators in the Midwest are assumed to be the physical locations for depots, and biorefineries are co-located with coal-fired power plants adjacent large urban areas. Based on these assumptions, the depot locations will be determined based on the regional biomass production near 3000+ existing grain elevators. About 10-20 coal-fired power plants near large urban areas will be selected as biorefinery locations based on the populations within an 80-km radius of the coal-fired power plant.The process data, operational costs, and labor requirements for the depot processes will be obtained from the MSU AFEX Team (Dr. Bringi, Dr. Bals, Dr. Teymouri and Mr. Julian). The Aspen Plus model for the depot-based decentralized biorefinery will be used to estimate the mass and energy balances and the minimum ethanol selling price (MESP). Since the AFEX pretreatment process is decoupled from the biorefinery, the depot-based decentralized biorefinery consists of the following processes: pretreated pellet handling, on-site enzyme production, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation, distillation, cogeneration, and wastewater treatment. The Aspen Plus model also provides the labor requirement in the biorefinery.AFEX-treated biomass selling price and the minimum ethanol selling price (MESP) will be calculated by the discounted cash flow rate of return approach. The lifecycle GHG emissions are normalized to 1 MJ of fuel or to one acre of cropland, as an alternative basis. The system boundaries include biomass production, transportation of biomass from croplands to a depot, the depot, transportation of pretreated pellets, the decentralized biorefinery, avoided grid electricity by excess electricity production, and upstream processes (e.g., chemicals, fuels, etc.).GHG emissions associated with the depot and the depot-based decentralized biorefinery can be estimated from the process data. Excess electricity in the depot-based decentralized biorefinery is exported to the grid to displace the electricity in the state in which the biorefinery is located. The GHG emissions associated with the upstream processes (e.g., diesel, electricity and materials, etc.) are obtained from the U.S. life cycle inventory database. GHG emissions of the conventional (displaced by AFEX) animal feeds will be estimated based on our previous research.Economic factors, in particular the farm-gate price of cellulosic feedstock and its logistics costs, prevent some of biomass from being converted to ethanol fuel. That is, biorefineries will avoid processing high-priced or remote biomass in order to minimize their ethanol selling prices (or maximize their profits). The biorefinery size and life GHG emissions are determined based on supply chains which are established by minimizing ethanol selling price (MESP). MESP is a function of the biorefinery size and the pretreated pellet cost.Depots always supply pretreated pellets to a biorefinery in the highest energy demand area. The first supply chain will be established in the biorefinery located in the highest energy (gasoline) demand areas. The second supply chain will be established in the biorefinery located in the second highest energy demand areas and determined based on depots not participating in the first supply chain. The remaining biorefineries follow the same procedure for establishing the supply chains.The methods described above primarily relate to the application of the AFEX process in U.S.-based bioenergy systems producing ethanol in the Corn Belt and High Plains, and is integrated into our new project funded by the GLBRC. The GLBRC is not funding us to address anything connected with the AFEX process at the depot/farm level. Thus there is no "double-dipping".Second research topic: Integrating AFEX into the Brazilian ethanol/sugar cane system. The second application of AFEX in bionenergy systems will primarily provide data to our Brazilian collaborators, as described in the proposal. However, the project details will depend largely on their current institutional/national priorities when the work actually begins in mid-2019. Our primary contribution is to provide data on the AFEX process as described below. They will then use this data in their modeling efforts. We will jointly write the resulting papers.Third research topic: Integrating AFEX into the Italian biogas industry. In the third application, we primarily provide data to our Italian collaborators who will do most of the actual work of analysis and modeling. Like our Brazilian colleagues, our Italian collaborators will not finalize their work plans until late 2019 because these will be determined by whatever the economic and regulatory climate is at that time. (It is very much a moving target.) We will provide data on AFEX, and our collaborators will use these and other data in modeling the Italian situation. We will jointly write the resulting papers.

Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:Lay public, fellow professionals, farmers, academics Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?My own professional development in the area of sustainable agroenergy systems continues to be enhanced, particularly as regards the absolute necessity that farmers benefit financially and socially as a result of the deployment of such systems. It is frankly an amazing and wonderful learning experience for this chemical engineer, one that continues to stretch me. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through the cited publications. Because of Covid-19, dissemination via public meetings was essentially eliminated. However, during the next reporting period I will summarize my involvement in several different dissemination venues via Zoom. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I expect at least three more publications in archival journal relative to the project, perhaps more. We will finish and publish the wrap-up report by the AFEX Team at Michigan State University regarding the data that will support future commercialization of the AFEX process. I will participate in at least three virtual conferences in which I will communicate the results of this project to farmers, lay persons and fellow academics. And I will continue to use data generated by my colleagues inthe DOE-funded Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (in which I am an investigator) to develop the modeling of sustainable bioenergy systems described in this proposal. In addition, there are two emerging opportunities in which I hope to further advance Sustainable Agroenergy Systems. If these opportunities result in actual productivecollaborations, I will further describe them in detail in next year's report. However, I will also mention them briefly here. The first is a potential modeling project in collaboration with Dr. Charles Forsberg, Head of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The basis of the collaboration is to combine very large scale biorefineries with nuclear plants that provide the heat and electricity for the biorefinery so that all of the carbon in the agricultural/forestry feedstocks can be converted to biofuels and bioproducts, thereby lessening by about half the landscape "footprint" required to meet a substantial portion of our nation's needs for biofuels and bioproducts. Second, I have begun a very promising interaction with the USDA NIFA-funded farm-oriented project at Iowa State University called C-CHANGE. The C-C-CHANGE project is headed by Dr. Lisa Schulte-Moore and is focused on better understanding and then expanding the on-farm production of biogas. I was instrumental in helping Dr. Schulte-Moore make contact with the Italian farmers who have a full decade of experience on-farm production of biogas from double crops-- a key area of emphasis of the C-CHANGE project. So, I am happy to report that promisingopportunities continue to expand for me to understand and promote sustainable agroenergy systems that benefit farmers.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? I am supporting the wrap up report to be submitted by the AFEX team at Michigan State University regarding their efforts to commercialize theAFEX process. This report will provide the data needed for the modeling work described in my 2018 project application. I continue to interact with the Brazilian Bioenergy Center regarding land efficient bioenergy systems. My participation in their project funded by the Sao Paulo Research Foundation has been approved, so I will be participating with them in the future. The in-personmeeting I was to participate in in Brazil pursuant to this project during Spring 2020 was cancelled due to Covid-19 andhas not yet been rescheduled. I likewise continue to interact with the Italian Biogas Consortium in their efforts to expand commercial developmentof on-farm biogas production combined with cover crops to regenerate soils, increase farm-level profitability and produce sustainable energy. We published our third joint paper in August 2020 (as referenced in this report) and I have scheduled three Zoom presentations at various venues during October 2020 relative to this collaboration.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: DOI: 10.1002/bbb.2134; Biofuels. Bioprod. Bioref. (2020)
  • Type: Other Status: Accepted Year Published: 2019 Citation: US Patent Number 10,457,810 Densified Biomass Products Containing Pretreated Biomass Fibers
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2020 Citation: Environmental Science & Technology Manuscript ID: es-2020-01097s.R2 Title: "Carbon-Negative Biofuel Production" Authors: Kim, Seungdo; Zhang, Xuesong; Reddy, Ashwan; Dale, Bruce; Thelen, Kurt; Jones, Curtis ; Izaurralde, Roberto; Runge, Troy; Maravelias, Christos T Manuscript Status


Progress 01/01/19 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Lay public, fellow professionals, farmers, academics Changes/Problems:As mentioned in the previous section, the team of four individuals at MSU who are pursuing ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX) commercialization as cattle feed have disbanded as of September 30, 2019. This is not due to any technical deficiencies of AFEX, but on the failure of the team to find a path forward to obtain regulatory approval for the small amounts of acetamide in the feed. As a result, I will emphasize work with the Italians and Brazilians as detailed in my original proposal, while planning and then lending my support to other efforts to commercialize AFEX for animal feed. These additional plans for animal feed will be developed during the next few months and described in my next annual report. The plans for work with my Brazilian and Italian collaborators will continue as described in my original proposal. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?I am currently the only person supported by the project, and my sabbatical (referred to above) was a seminal opportunity for my professional development in the area of sustainable agroenergy systems. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through publications in the technical literature, and by serving as the Keynote Speaker at the annual meeting of the Italian Biogas Consortium in Rome, Italy, in March 2018. I addressed the opportunities for sustainable on farm biogas production. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?I will continue to work with my MSU colleagues, and with colleagues in Italy and Brazil, to publish papers describing how we might roll out a sustainable agroenergy industry in both countries. In the past two weeks (September 30., 2019), the AFEX team at Michigan State University announced that they would be ending their efforts to scale up AFEX for commercialization as an animal feed. The AFEX process has met all of the technical requirements, but has not been able to overcome the regulatory hurdles due to the presence of small amounts of acetamide in the product. I will not abandon my efforts in this area, and will continue to pursue opportunities in Brazil and Europe. Further details will be provided in my next annual report.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? We wrote several papers, at least one on each of these topics, during the past years as detailed in the Publications section. I also took a sabbatical leave last year (June 2018 through August 2019). The major activity of my sabbatical was to write the papers resulting from past laboratory work on the AFEX process and begin the writing of more modeling papers for sustainable bioenergy systems. In addition, I read widely on the topic of sustainable agroenergy systems. During the course of this reading, I became more and more convinced that there are very few research groups focused on the sustainable integration of agriculture and energy. Furthermore, my initial opinion was strengthened that there are only two currently operating examples in the world where the integration of agriculture and sustainable energy are actually being practiced. These include the Biogasdoneright movement in Italy and the Brazilian effort to integrated cattle feeding and fuel ethanol. I am connected with both groups at the highest levels and so I am well-positioned to write appropriate articles and to advance these efforts.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.08.022
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: View online at Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com); DOI: 10.1002/bbb.1927; Biofuels, Bioprod. Bioref. (2018)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: # Springer Nature B.V. 2019 J. M. Park (ed.), Handbook of Biorefinery Research and Technology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6724-9_2-2 1
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.8b02808 Environ. Sci. Technol. 2019, 53, 2288?2294
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: DOI: 10.1111/gcbb.12613
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Bioresource Technology 272 (2019) 326336
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2018.12.012
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Avci U, Zhou X, Pattathil S, da Costa Sousa L, Hahn MG, Dale B, Xu Y and Balan V (2019) Effects of Extractive Ammonia Pretreatment on the Ultrastructure and Glycan Composition of Corn Stover. Front. Energy Res. 7:85. doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2019.00085