Source: IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
CONSORTIUM FOR CULTIVATING HUMAN AND NATURALLY REGENERATIVE ENTERPRISES (C-CHANGE)
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1022886
Grant No.
2020-68012-31824
Cumulative Award Amt.
$10,000,000.00
Proposal No.
2019-08352
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2020
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2026
Grant Year
2020
Program Code
[A9201]- Sustainable Agricultural Systems
Recipient Organization
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY
2229 Lincoln Way
AMES,IA 50011
Performing Department
Natural Res Ecology & Mgmt
Non Technical Summary
The Consortium for Cultivating Human And Naturally reGenerative Enterprises, or C-CHANGE, is a transdisciplinary partnership united in the effort to advance a new biobased value chain. This new value chain is based on the production of renewable natural gas (RNG) and associated bioproducts through the anaerobic digestion (AD) of herbaceous biomass combined with manure. It is expected to provide a sustainable income stream for agricultural stakeholders in the US Upper Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions, where most of the nation's corn, soybean, hogs, poultry, eggs, biofuels, and large quantities of dairy are produced. RNG is the best-incentivized, fastest growing product in today's bioeconomy. The novelty of the project lies in leveraging a successful business model based on the AD of manure to encompass new agricultural feedstocks, more diverse products, and increased value throughout the supply chain. C-CHANGE provides integrated research, education, and extension activities directed toward feedstock diversification, modulari­zation, process intensification, and stakeholder engagement to reduce supply chain risks, increase product value, and improve production, profitability, and sustainability. The pressing needs to alleviate social, eco­nomic, and environmental concerns associated with current agricultural sys­tems, and to foster new economic development in rural America, drives the demand for C-CHANGE. More than 55 organizations have already provided in­put, helped refine project scope and priorities, and enlisted for demonstrations, deployment, and scale up. Once fully developed, the value chain will substantially contribute to national targets for bio­fuels and bioproducts while simultaneously meeting other goals pro­moting human health, economic prosperity, energy security, and ecosystem resources.
Animal Health Component
40%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
40%
Applied
40%
Developmental
20%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
5112499202035%
1022499107035%
8036099308010%
6016199301010%
6036199301010%
Knowledge Area
601 - Economics of Agricultural Production and Farm Management; 511 - New and Improved Non-Food Products and Processes; 102 - Soil, Plant, Water, Nutrient Relationships; 803 - Sociological and Technological Change Affecting Individuals, Families, and Communities; 603 - Market Economics;

Subject Of Investigation
6199 - Economy, general/other; 6099 - People and communities, general/other; 2499 - Plant research, general;

Field Of Science
2020 - Engineering; 1070 - Ecology; 3010 - Economics; 3080 - Sociology;
Goals / Objectives
C-CHANGE addresses the interconnected challenges and opportunities facing US agriculture today with an integrated solution: we leverage anaerobic digestion and renewable natural gas and expand the technology to herbaceous feedstocks, reduce economies of scale, and develop associated bioproducts, thereby charting a practical and achievable path to both sustainability and economic development. The three major project goals and their linked objectives follow.Goal 1: Advance the AD of herbaceous feedstocks for the production of RNG and associated products OBJ 1.1 - Identify pathways that improve the production, profitability, and sustainability of RNG and associated bioproducts through modelingOBJ 1.2 - Identify economically and environmentally viable approaches to process intensification in AD through lab experimentsOBJ 1.3 - Characterize AD of diverse herbaceous feedstocks at pilot and commercial scalesOBJ 1.4 - Catalyze the new value chain through commercialization supportsGoal 2: Advance productive, profitable, and sustainable sources of herbaceous feedstocksOBJ 2.1 - Collate existing datasets for agroecosystem and crop model development and calibrationOBJ 2.2 - Collect gap-filling data through field experiments and on-farm researchOBJ 2.3 - Use modeling to identify crop configurations that improve yield, profitability, and sustainabilityOBJ 2.4 - Develop leadership within the agricultural communityGoal 3: Advance the biobased value chain through stakeholder engagementOBJ 3.1 - Engage stakeholders toward a shared vision for value chain transformationOBJ 3.2 - Quantify the value of products and services derived from the new value chainOBJ 3.3 - Cultivate next generation support and leadership for the value chain
Project Methods
For over 50 years, AD has been used to treat manures, crop residues, and a wide range of municipal and industrial organic wastes. Its ability to dramatically reduce odors and pathogens, convert organic nitrogen to more available and predictable ammonia for fertilization, and generate renewable energy is well documented. However, adoption in the US has been slow because of inadequate economies of scale, sensitivity of the anaerobic microbiome to process variability, and high levels of required technical expertise. Through Goal 1 research, we will address these issues through research to improve economic prospects associated with increasing feedstock diversity, including herbaceous biomass; increase diversity of markets by expanding products to include biobased chemicals and valorizing co-products of AD; improve operational resiliency by incorporating process intensification/innovation in AD systems; and replace economies of scale with economies of number by introducing modular manufacturing and automation.Research ito meet Goal 2 will provide Goals 1 and 3 with iterative estimates of biomass from winter crop, pasture, prairie, and annual crop residues (for both target AD herbaceous feedstocks and current dominant crops) through coupled modeling, field experimentation, and on-farm research and demonstration. Members of our team have been conducting long-term field experiments on perennial, winter, and annual crop systems and incorporated findings into agroecosystem models to determine agronomic, economic, and environmental performance under a broader set of conditions. Here, we will collate datasets from Iowa and Pennsylvania and use them to train, test, employ, and compare two leading agroecosystem models for our regions: APSIM and Cycles. Field and subfield level simulation model outputs will feed into Foresite, a computational framework we developed to predict economic and environmental impacts of cropping systems at a subfield scale. Subfield management provides the opportunity to spatially integrate perennial herbaceous feedstocks within annual crop fields to meet financial and ecosystem service goals.Effecting change in complex social-agroecological systems requires careful attention to the perspectives and interests of stakeholders and engagement change agents in transdisciplinary partnerships that build pathways to change. Goal 3 research and engagement will complement Goal 2 work with farmers and their local advisors by engaging value chain stakeholders in: (1) iterative processes that advance shared visions for investment, infrastructure, market, and workforce development in the new value chain; (2) evaluation of feasibility of alternative value chain scenarios; and (3) work toward consensus on policy and actions needed to transform the value chain.Education and extension events and activities will be integrated with research in all three goal areas. We will use formative evaluation using multiple methods to provide a positive feedback loops for continual improvement to programming in each year of the grant and summative evaluation in the final year. All C-CHANGE events will be evaluated with descriptive statistics (number of attendees, participant organizational affiliation, number of hours of contact) and use of published materials will be tracked through web analytics. Commercialization support short courses will be evaluated through pre/post surveys. Farmer partners will be interviewed by Extension team members at the beginning, middle, and end of the project to understand individual questions, concerns, innovations, and insights. Digester Days and field days will be evaluated by Extension team members using ILF's established four-step protocol. Education team members will conduct a pre-/post-assessments to evaluate participant and host experiences and the development of STEM and entrepreneurial identity. Progression of teacher or student work, community impact, and understanding of scientific content will further be assessed using experimental logs and posters to code the ideas. The undergraduate intern program will incorporate an assessment loop where students regularly meet with their program/research mentors to evaluate professional development. Additional evaluation includes self-efficacy assessment (confidence, wherewithal) for participants. The external program evaluator will conduct interviews with 50 team members, collaborators, and event participants annually over the period of 5 years regarding program efficacy and progress toward meeting goals and objectives. The evaluator will provide annual reports to the team to ensure feedback loops between and alignment across the project's activities, management structures, and outcomes. An end-of-project survey of project education and outreach participants (n=400) will additionally be developed and administered in Y5, and a summative evaluation report will be delivered.

Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences for the C-CHANGE Grass2Gas team include for Goal 1, Bioprocessing: entrepreneurs and private industries in the bioenergy and bioproduct sectors; Goal 2, Agroecosystems: farmers and farmland owners, agribusiness, extension and natural resource professionals, and other agricultural stakeholders; and Goal 3, Human Dimensions: policymakers, state and federal agency personnel, people working for public interest non-profits organizations, teachers and students. Scientists from a wide variety of disciplines at universities and federal labs are a target audience across all three goals. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? In Y4, the project supported 17 graduate students, employed 12 undergraduate students, hosted four CyBound students for summer research experiences, facilitated AD-focused classroom learning with 26 undergraduates, engaged 18 high school teachers in RET programs, and 329 pre-college students from underserved populations participated in Science Bound Saturday activities with G2G-related disciplines. Nearly half of all external presentations over the past year were from scholars. Within standing team meetings, the scholars have taken on additional opportunities to share their work and seek feedback. Our first year with a scholar representative on the executive team was a success, and we'll have a new representative for Y5. The role was instrumental to facilitating productive research discussions among the scholars and influencing meeting agendas to best support their work. The team also convened face-to-face in Syracuse, NY for a project-midpoint meeting in June. The agenda prioritized working time within and across sub-teams and provided time to forecast work with the addition of a proposed no-cost extension in Y6. In total, the team identified 33 outputs they want to complete over the next two years. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Audiences of interest for this project include the research community, private industry and entrepreneurs, policy and government actors, farmers and farmland owners, and nonprofits. A major outreach milestone this reporting cycle was the Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm conference. With nearly 300 attendees participating, the event facilitated productive discussion and education across all targeted stakeholder groups. Correspondingly, the Penn State team facilitated a week-long workshop for 16 teachers that used AD as the subject focus for development of curricula and classroom exercises. The Goal 3 team has also been actively updating stakeholders that participated in the series of workshops and other interested parties. Other ongoing meetings (i.e., invited lectures, presentations, webinars) reach a range of ag and food system stakeholders. Publications in scientific journals, extension-generated resources, and policy papers also help disseminate the project findings. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Integrative modeling across all three goal areas of the project continues to be a priority and will inform outreach. The modeling results will also constitute the bulk of publications from Goals 1 and 2 through the remainder of the project. Goal 3 will conduct another round of workshops in Q1 of 2025 that build from the first round and modeling resources. The Goal 3 team also has a number of publications in progress that will help provide socioeconomic and cultural context for the G2G scenario. Typical extension and outreach efforts will continue; the team will coordinate in-person and virtual events that share research findings and practical resources for AD operations. We're also looking forward to a second year of teacher workshops.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The C-CHANGE Grass2Gas (G2G) team continues to make substantial progress. To communicate and celebrate our collective milestones, in Y4 we produced a mid-project report for broad audiences (https://doi.org/10.31274/usp-20240410-0). A major output in Y4 was the Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm conference in Ames, IA, which engaged stakeholders; facilitated information exchange on anaerobic digestion in agriculture; and communicated solutions for the various challenges facing those operating an AD facility or those interested in owning and operating their own facility. Many on the G2G team participated and planning was in collaboration with EPA Region 7 and colleagues at the University of Iowa. Nearly 300 hundred people from agencies, industry, academic, and environmental interest groups attended. The team published 7 peer-reviewed papers, 5 reports, 6 educational resources,and delivered 70 presentations and events focused on G2G science and technologies to over 2,300 people. The breadth of outreach included 6 field days and workshops, 13 webinars, 21 conference presentations, 13 posters, andotherlectures and policy-related engagements. Topics for outreach spanned disciplines and highlighted farm management (i.e., digestate application, double crops), policy (i.e., stacking incentives, related law), life cycle analyses, and stakeholder perspectives. The team also responded to a selection of stakeholder questions that have been raised through interviews, workshops, and event outreach. Goal 1, Bioprocessing: Lab-scale anaerobic digestion work has investigated numerous strategies to improve the economic and/or environmental prospects of G2G systems (1.2). Some notable examples include: 1) studying and optimizing solid-state and conventional "liquid-state" anaerobic digestion parameters for the co-digestion of manure with herbaceous biomass; 2) investigating the effects of liquid digestate recirculation on benchtop reactors under a variety of co-digestion scenarios; 3) studying methane recovery from liquid digestate to reduce digestate storage emissions and capture additional biogas, and; 4) testing for variability in biomethane potential of different prairie species and prairie sites. Techno-economic models and life cycle assessments based on the experimental data have been developed for modeling biomass and manure co-digestion, as well as incorporating value-added pretreatment and digestate valorization strategies (1.1). Our economic models show that hydroxycinnamic-acid extraction pretreatment can greatly benefit the economic viability of RNG production from prairie biomass and simultaneously reduce GHG gas emissions compared to fossil-based natural gas. Other modeling efforts incorporating experimental data have shown methane recovery and digestate recirculation to also greatly benefit the economic prospects of G2G, while also lowering net GHG emissions compared to baseline G2G scenarios (1.4). Goal 2, Agroecosystems: In Pennsylvania, field studies aimed at reducing nitrogen losses from liquid-separated anaerobically-digested dairy manure (LSDDM) and raw manure were completed in no-till dairy crop systems (2.2). A published study found that injecting slurry manure early in spring to growing cover crops (CC) reduced ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions compared to late spring injection on terminated CC. Another study found injection of LSDDM on commercial dairy farms compared to surface application reduced ammonia loss, and in 5 of 6 site-years increased crop yield and net returns on investment. Field data comparisons to Cycles model simulations are underway for additional crop and LSDDM scenario simulations (2.3). An MS thesis was completed that included life cycle inventory and analysis of a dairy farm with anaerobic digestion and 10% converted to switchgrass. In Iowa, field studies measured soil carbon and nitrogen pools, soil emissions of nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide, water quality and quantity and crop productivity (2.2). The primary experiment contains a set of inorganic fertilized corn/soybean cropping systems with and without CC and fertilized and unfertilized prairie. Preliminary analysis indicates strong evidence for significantly better water quality under prairie systems even with fertilizer and CC also showed a smaller effect. Soil carbon and nitrogen analyses show minimal changes to overall pools. Similar to water quality soil GHG gases showed a bigger difference among systems with the prairie system losing significantly less nitrous oxide than the corn/soy system even when the prairie is fertilized. All of the aforementioned data have been assembled to develop and improve the prairie crop type in the APSIM agroecosystems model (2.3). Goal 3, Human Dimensions: The Goal 3 team has continued its research and engagement activities to document stakeholders' perspectives on the potential feasibility of the G2G farm-based value chain (3.1). Interview results informed three workshops with representatives from Iowa, Pennsylvania, and national-level stakeholder groups. These in turn led to three proceedings documents and a Q&A report to respond to feedback. All of the data and information collected through the stakeholder engagement processes are now being analyzed and organized into manuscripts for peer-reviewed journal articles. Our improved understanding of stakeholder perspectives is informing overall G2G project perspectives on alternative RNG supply chain development pathways. Economic modeling completed in Y4 will inform Y5 workshops and additional stakeholder feedback (3.2).

Publications

  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Morris (2023) Technology Legitimacy in Energy Transitions: Stakeholder Perspectives on an Alternative Feedstock Anaerobic Digester Project. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Argueta-Hern�ndez (2023) National Diversity in STEM Conference. SACNAS: National Diversity in STEM Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Andersen (2023) AD Conference Pre-Conference. Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Schulte Moore et al (2023) AD Conference Kickoff: Opening remarks. Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Stagner (2023) Perspectives and Salience of On-Farm Anaerobic Digestion in American Newspapers, 1980  2023. Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Andersen et al (2023) Farmer Digester Extension Needs & Opportunities. Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: "Andersen (2023) Midwestern Livestock Farms as a Template for Understanding, Evaluating, and Improving the Circularity of Bioeconomic Systems. Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Case Study of Switchgrass Bedding and Bioenergy Production, Aug 2024. Penn State Extension. (In-person, 250)
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Franklin, Schmitz, Schulte, Tutuola Akingbasote, Soko, Rahic (2023) Next Gen Anaerobic Digestion Leadership Panel. Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Arbuckle et al (2023) AD Conference Session 9: Social & Environmental Concerns Roundtable. Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Fathel (2023) Examining the Biogas Circular Economy of a Commercial Dairy Farm in Pennsylvania. Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Koundinya (2023) Using Formative Evaluation Data to Realign Project Activities and Outcomes. National Association of Extension Program and Staff Development Professionals Annual Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Helbing (2024) Stacking Environmental Benefits and Incentives. Penn State University.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Schulte Moore et al (2024) C-CHANGE: Grass2Gas Annual Meeting 2024.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: J. Arbuckle (2024) Grass to gas?: Diverse stakeholder perspectives on the development of a hypothetical grass-based biogas production value chain. Agriculture, Food, and Human Values Society and the Association for the Study of Food and Society Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Helbing (2023) Introduction to the Law and Policy of Anaerobic Digestion. Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Malone (2023) Sustainable Intensification: Impacts of Winter Rye Energy Crops on Biomass Quantity, Nitrogen Loads, and Water Quality in the North-Central U.S. Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Herbstritt (2023) Rye as an Energy Cover Crop: Doubling Up for Energy, Carbon and Economic Sustainability. Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: de Lima Casseres dos Santos (2024) Grass 2 Gas: Estimating change in net nitrogen input to the Chesapeake Bay watershed due to the inclusion of continuous cover. International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technology.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: de Lima Casseres dos Santos (2024) Too much of a good thing: assessing nitrogen demand in agriculture. Northeast Agricultural/Biological Engineering Conference.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Arbuckle et al (2024) Grass to gas?: Multi-stakeholder perspectives on the development of a grass-based biogas value chain. Rural Sociological Society Annual Meeting.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Porcano (2024) Techno-economic model of anaerobic co-digestion and biogas upgrading in dairy farms. ASABE Annual International Meeting.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Giuliani, MF, SH Villarino, L Schulte Moore. 2023. Whole Learning with agricultural innovation: a teaching case on adding an anaerobic digester to an Iowa Farm. Agricultural Education 96(3):18-21. https://www.naae.org/profdevelopment/magazine/archive_issues/Volume96/2023%2011%20--%20November%20December.pdf
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Korkut, E., Helbing, M.D., Fowler, L.B., Schulte, L.A., Arbuckle, J.G., Stagner, F., Montabon, F. (2023). The Regulatory Landscape of Livestock Anaerobic Digesters and Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), U. of Louisville Brandeis School of Law J. of Animal & Envt'l Law, https://www.louisvillejael.com/publications.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Martin, I.M., Aui, A., Dubey, P. et al. Optimal Production and Dispatch of Renewable Natural Gas, Electricity, and Fertilizer in Municipal-Scale Anaerobic Digestion Supply Chains. Bioenerg. Res. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-024-10767-y
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Nowatzke, M., Gao, L., Dorneich, M.C. et al. Interviews with farmers from the US corn belt highlight opportunity for improved decision support systems and continued structural barriers to farmland diversification. Precision Agric 25, 20582081 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-024-10154-9
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Olafasakin, O., Audia, E. M., Mba-Wright, M., Tyndall, J. C., & Schulte, L. A. (2024). Techno-economic and life cycle analysis of renewable natural gas derived from anaerobic digestion of grassy biomass: A US Corn Belt watershed case study. GCB Bioenergy, 16, e13164. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.13164
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Rahic, E.., Hess, C., Brown, R.C., Wen, Z., 2024. Enhanced anaerobic digestion of prairie biomass through alkaline-based hydroxycinnamic acid extraction. Bioresource Technology Reports
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Sigdel, S., Dell, C. J., & Karsten, H. D. (2024). Can manure application method and timing with cover crops reduce NH3 and N2O gas losses and sustain corn yield? Agronomy Journal, 121. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.21644
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Morris, C., Stagner, F., Arbuckle, J. (2023). Proceedings Summary Report: Iowa StakeholderWorkshop. Consortium for Cultivating Human And Naturally reGenerative Enterprises (C-CHANGE) Grass2Gas. DOI.10.31274/dr-20240131-0
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Morris, C., Stagner, F., Arbuckle, J. (2024). Proceedings Summary Report: National Stakeholder Workshop. Consortium for Cultivating Human And Naturally reGenerative Enterprises (C-CHANGE) Grass2Gas. https://doi.org/10.31274/usp-20240523-0
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Stagner, F., Morris, C., Arbuckle, J. (2023). Proceedings Summary Report: Pennsylvania Stakeholder Workshop. Consortium for Cultivating Human And Naturally reGenerativeEnterprises (C-CHANGE) Grass2Gas. DOI.10.31274/dr-20240131-1
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: (2024) Building a Resilient Biomass Supply: A Plan to Enable the Bioeconomy in America. U.S. Department of Agriculture. https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/biomass-supply-chain-report.pdf
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: (2024) Cultivating Collaboration: Mid-project Summary for the Grass2Gas Project. Iowa State University Digital Repository. https://doi.org/10.31274/usp-20240410-0
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Herbstritt et al (2024) USDA NIFA Annual Report (FY2023): Feeding People, Fueling Progress. USDA. https://www.nifa.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2024-05/NIFAAnnualReportFY23_0524_FINAL-508_reduced.pdf
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Schulte Moore et al (2024) ISU studies explore win-win potential of grass-powered energy production. ISU News Service. https://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2024/07/26/grasstogas
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Schulte Moore et al (2024) Study explores winwin potential of grass-powered energy production. Science X. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/study-explores-win-win-potential-of-grass-powered-energy-production/ar-BB1qGXzy
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Schulte Moore et al (2024) ISU Studies Grass-Powered Energy's Win-Win Potential. The Miracle. https://www.miragenews.com/isu-studies-grass-powered-energys-win-win-1284179/
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Schulte Moore et al (2024) Turning turf into power: US researchers explore the potential of grass-based energy production. Tribune. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2483674/turning-turf-into-power-us-researchers-explore-the-potential-of-grass-based-energy-production
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Tour: Anaerobic Digester, Jul 2024. Center for Science and the Schools (CSATS). Field day (In-person)
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Stagner (2024) Responses to Outstanding Stakeholder Questions: Supplemental Document to 2023 Grass2Gas Iowa, Pennsylvania, and National Workshop Proceedings. ISU Digital Repository. https://doi.org/10.31274/usp-20240717-0
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Schulte Moore (2024) River to River: President Biden's proposed sweeping SCOTUS reforms. Iowa Public Radio. https://www.iowapublicradio.org/podcast/river-to-river/2024-08-02/president-bidens-proposed-sweeping-scotus-reforms
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Schulte Moore (2024) Agribusiness Radio Network: win-win potential of G2G. Agribusiness Radio Network. https://iowaagribusinessradionetwork.com/isu-studying-benefits-of-grass-to-gas-energy-production-for-farmers/
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Mba Wright (2024) Axios newsletter: win-win potential of G2G. Axios Des Moines. https://www.axios.com/local/des-moines/2024/08/05/prairie-grass-iowa-state-university-profit
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Science and Policy: Life Cycle Analysis, Jul 2024. Center for Science and the Schools (CSATS). Invited lecture/talk (In-person)
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Porcano (2024) Techno-economical analysis of dairy cow farm-scale anaerobic digestion system. Penn State Library. https://honors.libraries.psu.edu/catalog/9028hep5147
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Wild (2024) Efficient feedstock use for upgrading biogas to renewable natural gas: An economic and environmental assessment. https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/handle/20.500.12876/jw27jQNv


Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience: Target audiences for the C-CHANGE Grass2Gas team include for Goal 1, Bioprocessing: entrepreneurs and private industries in the bioenergy and bioproduct sectors; Goal 2, Agroecosystems: farmers and farmland owners, agribusiness, extension and natural resource professionals, and other agricultural stakeholders; and Goal 3, Human Dimensions: policy makers, state and federal agency personnel, people working for public interest non-profits organizations, teachers and students. Scientists from a wide variety of disciplines at universities and federal labs are a target audience across all three goals. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? To date, the project has provided academic and professional development opportunities to over 70 scholars (e.g., pre-college students, undergrads, graduate students, and postdocs) and seven high school teachers through internships, a Research Experiences for Teachers program, Science Bound and CyBound experiences, and assistantships. In 30 instances, these scholars and teachers have presented their work at various meetings or professional settings. Over 200 undergraduate students have participated in classroom activities (e.g., case studies, pitch competitions) in which AD is a central topic. Science Bound Saturdays have hosted 21 experiences for 605 pre-college students and in the next two years, workshops are planned to further support high school teachers' ability to incorporate AD-related science and innovation into their teaching plans. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Audiences of interest for this project include the research community, private industry and entrepreneurs, policy and government actors, farmers and farmland owners, and nonprofits. The team is fortunate to have an active advisory board that represents each of these groups. In the previous year, project advisors have attended the team's in-person meetings, connected directly for feedback, and received quarterly update emails. Team members have also been invited to provide scientific evidence and/or comment on questions from NRCS Chief Terry Cosby, White House Office of Science and Technology's Climate and Environment team, and a cover crop working group with representatives from RMA, FSA, and NRCS. Other meetings (i.e., invited lectures, conference presentations, webinars) reach a range of ag and food system stakeholders. Publications in scientific journals, extension-generated resources, and policy papers also help disseminate the project findings. In the next several weeks, the Goal 3 team plans to disseminate a proceedings paper to stakeholders that participated in the series of workshops this past year as well as other interested parties. The document will outline a high-level summary of the project, organize stakeholder insights from the national, Iowa, and Pennsylvania workshops, and forecast upcoming award activities that stakeholders can anticipate. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Notable in the next reporting cycle, the team is collaborating with EPA Region 7 and colleagues at the University of Iowa to host an "Anaerobic Digestion on the Farm" conference in Ames, IA this November. The purpose of the conference is to engage stakeholders; facilitate information exchange on anaerobic digestion in agriculture; and focus on solutions for the various challenges facing those operating an AD facility or those interested in owning and operating their own facility. With regard to ongoing research, the modeling portions of the project will receive increased attention. The project is positioned well with the data generated from experiments and guidance across goal teams and from stakeholders to dive more fully into the modeling in Goal 1 (e.g., life cycle and technoeconomic analyses), Goal 2 (e.g., cropping systems with APSIM and Cycles), and Goal 3 (e.g., ecosystem services and economic modeling). Dr. Chris Costello's position shift to the institutional lead for Penn State, with her modeling expertise, are well-timed for the shift in focus. Journal manuscripts and other communications outputs derived from work over the previous years of the grant will continue to be published. Likewise, extension-based events will proceed and adapt as necessary to align with new findings or interests expressed by stakeholders. The components focused on educating the next generation are also underway as typical each year with the exception of the Research Experience for Teachers program. Input from teachers that have participated the previous three years will now inform two workshops to reach a greater number of teachers in Y4 and Y5.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The C-CHANGE Grass2Gas team continues to train students and researchers, conduct experiments, collect data, publish findings, engage cooperators, share knowledge, and deliver outreach to broad stakeholder groups. These efforts support short- and long-term project goals to advance a new biobased value chain. In the past year, the project has supported 17 graduate students, employed 10 undergraduate students, offered seven undergraduate students an opportunity to mentor pre-college students, facilitated AD-focused classroom learning with 91 undergraduates, engaged two high school teachers in RET programs, and 251 pre-college students from underserved populations participated in science fairs and Science Bound Saturday activities with C-CHANGE-related disciplines. Furthermore, the team published nine peer-reviewed papers and five educational resources (i.e., handouts, teaching exercises, etc.) and delivered 43 presentations and events focused on Grass2Gas science and technologies to over 2,000 people. The breadth of outreach included 14 field days and workshops, 10 conference presentations, and a mixture of lectures and policy-related engagements, among others. Topics for outreach spanned disciplines and included highlights of potential new bioproducts, exploration of risk involved with adopting AD technology, quantifying associated costs and benefits of AD and accompanying management practices, and training others to address existing challenges. In addition to the team's standing monthly meetings, the group convened in-person twice in the previous year. More than 40 across the team met in Davenport, Iowa for a project-midpoint meeting last November and 60+ met during May in Lancaster, PA for an annual meeting. Each of the meetings were invaluable for face-to-face coordination opportunities, idea generation, and scholar networking. Both events included digester tours for the team and other invited guests. The team is also thrilled to see the continuation of this work beyond the duration of the NIFA-supported C-CHANGE Grass2Gas project on two separate USDA Climate Smart Commodity grants our partners are leading, Horizon II (Midwest partners) and CARAT (Mid-Atlantic partners). Goal 1, Bioprocessing: Advance the anaerobic digestion of herbaceous feedstocks for the production of RNG and associated products. Bench-top experiments focused on co-product generation and increasing biogas yield from herbaceous feedstock (OBJ 1.2) were completed. Techno-economic models (OBJ 1.1) based on the experimental data are being developed for modeling biomass and manure co-digestion, and hydroxycinnamic acid extraction with renewable natural gas production. Pilot-scale testing protocols are in progress (OBJ 1.3). Design and implementation of updated co-digestion facilities for RNG production is proceeding at one Iowa farm with technical assistance from project collaborators (OBJ 1.4). Goal 1 is collaborating with Goal 3 to evaluate emerging market opportunities and potential incentives to increase anaerobic digestion sustainability. Goal 2, Agroecosystems: Advance productive, profitable, and sustainable sources of herbaceous feedstocks. Field studies, satellite data, and long-term data sets have been used in agroecosystem models to predict winter annual and perennial biomass, nitrogen losses (nitrate-nitrogen and nitrous oxide), and soil carbon storage (OBJ 2.1). The analysis of biomass production intensification options for AD identified the need for research on best management practices for winter annual biomass production in Midwest grain systems (OBJ 2.2). The third and final year of field research on digested liquid manure management to reduce nitrogen losses and improve crop production is being completed on PA commercial and research farms (OBJ 2.2). Cycles-L and APSIM models are being used to assess yield and profit changes associated with substituting perennial grasses for annual crops with digested and raw manure distribution at the landscape and farm scale to assess biomass production, and nutrient loss impact on water quality and GHG emissions (OBJ 2.3). Perennial demonstration farm sites, field days, and trainings have been conducted in Iowa and Pennsylvania (OBJ 2.4). Goal 3, Human Dimensions: Advance the biobased value chain through stakeholder engagement. Social scientists conducted additional interviews with 16 individuals from 12 stakeholder groups, for a total of 53 interviews with representatives from 35 national, Iowa- and Pennsylvania-based organizations. Three stakeholder workshops to discuss G2G scenarios were attended by 46 people from 39 groups. Data analysis and paper writing to share the team's findings is ongoing (OBJ 3.1). Most modeling to quantify values of the value chain products and services will begin in full this year, however, the input-output analysis is already underway (OBJ 3.2). The ISU and PSU education teams continue to engage with students across education levels and develop teaching exercises that highlight AD technologies and the supporting disciplines. Insights, evaluation data, and curricula from eight Research Experiences for Teachers (RETs) are currently informing the design of two week-long teacher workshops for Y3 and Y4 (OBJ 3.3).

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Rob Malone, Anna Radke, Steph Herbstritt, Huaiqing Wu, Zhiming Qi, Bryan Emmett, Matt Helmers, Lisa A. Schulte, Gary Feyereisen, Peter OBrien, John Kovar, Natalia Rogovska, Eileen Kladivko, Kelly Thorp, Tom Kaspar, Dan Jaynes, Doug Karlen, and Tom Richard. "Harvested Winter Rye Energy Cover Crop: Multiple Benefits for North Central US". Submitted to Environmental Research Letters.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: White, C. M., S. Sigdel, H.D. Karsten, R. J. Meinen, and J.T. Spargo. 2023. Recalibrating the Pennsylvania pre�\sidedress soil nitrate test recommendations for modern corn production. Agronomy Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.21426.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Malone, R.W., P.L. OBrien, S. Herbstritt, B. D. Emmett, D.L. Karlen, T.C. Kaspar, K. Kohler, A. Radke, S.H. Lence, H. Wu and T.L. Richard. (2022). Rye soybean double-crop: planting method and N fertilization effects in the North Central US. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 112. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742170522000096
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Shi, Y., Montes, F., & Kemanian, A. R. (2023). Cycles-L: A coupled, 3-D, land surface, hydrologic, and agroecosystem landscape model. Water Resources Research, 59, e2022WR033453. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022WR033453
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Audia, E, L Schulte Moore, J Tyndall. 2022. Measuring changes in financial and ecosystems service outcomes with simulated grassland restoration in a Corn Belt watershed. Frontiers in Renewable Food Systems 13: 959617. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2022.959617
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Herbstritt, S.; Richard, T.L.; Lence, S.H.; Wu, H.; OBrien, P.L.; Emmett, B.D.; Kaspar, T.C.; Karlen, D.L.; Kohler, K.; Malone, R.W. Rye as an Energy Cover Crop: Management, Forage Quality, and Revenue Opportunities for Feed and Bioenergy. Agriculture 2022, 12, 1691. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12101691
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Matthew Nowatzke et al 2022 Environ. Res. Lett. 17 114010
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Fathel, S. L., Herbstritt, S., Reinford, B., and Richard, T. Waste to worth: A case study of the biogas circular economy in Pennsylvania. Transactions of ASABE: 2022 Circular Food and Agricultural Systems Special Collection.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Amy Mayer, Farming for solutions: Perennial plants and native prairie show promise for sustainability, climate goals, BioScience, 2023;, biad061, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biad061
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Jordahl, Jim, Marshall McDaniel, Sebastian Villarino, Bradley Miller, Michael Thompson, Lisa A. Schulte. Carbon storage in cropland soils: insights from Iowa, United States. Land.


Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences for the C-CHANGE Grass2Gas team include for Goal 1, Bioprocessing: entrepreneurs and private industries in the bioenergy and bioproduct sectors; Goal 2, Agroecosystems: farmers and farmland owners, agribusiness, extension and natural resource professionals, and other agricultural stakeholders; and Goal 3, Human Dimensions: policy makers, state and federal agency personnel, people working for public interest non-profits organizations, teachers and students. Scientists from a wide variety of disciplines at universities and federal labs are a target audience across all three goals. Changes/Problems:Initial team building and knowledge sharing were slowed through the first 18 months of the project due to gathering and travel restrictions imposed byCOVID-19. Despite challenges, the team has been able to meet pre-established milestones, and the pace of learning and development of outputs substantially increased during the last half of Year 2. Continued and substantial progress is expected in Year 3. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have directly provided training to 17graduate students, 20undergraduate students, and 2teachersthrough direct work on the project. We have additionally integrated research data and practices into classes we teach or through guest teaching. Collectively these classes have reached 350+ students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We regularly interact with vested stakeholder groups to disseminate results and receive feedback on user information needs. Outlets have included direct engagement with entrepreneurs, industry, government, and nonprofit representatives by hosting a virtual conference; contact with farmers, farmland owners, crop advisers, and conservation personnel through research being conducted on farms; presentations to diverse and varied audiences at conferences, webinars, and field days; and through ad hoc meetings and direct consultation. During this reporting period we have made more than 35presentations to a combination of scientific, agency, farm management, and conservation groups, reaching approximately 1,200people. A subset of the team participated in the meeting hosted by USDA-NIFA in Kansas City, April 2022. Information continues to be distributed through a variety of media outlets, including Nature Sustainability, Des Moines Register, Ames Tribune, Farm Progress, New York Times, Chicago Tribuneand more. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Year 3 work will focus on continued knowledge sharing toward achieving research, education, extension, and commercialization goals. The pilot-scale on-farm digester at Sievers Family Farm is expected to expand production capacity in 2023 with updated facilities designed by Roeslein Alternative Energy for co-digestion. Research will continue on bioprocessing and technoeconomic analysis, synthesis of data from long-term field experiments, and the expansion and improvement of models. Continued human dimensions research will include the completion of semi-structured interviews with stakeholders and the in-depth analysis of those interviews, as well as the interdisciplinary modeling of scenarios and possible outcomes of the grass-to-gas vision. In the educational area, we will support student innovation and entrepreneurship projects and summer research experiences for high school and university students, and teachers. In extension, we will increase engagement with farmers, other Extension professionals, and the project's external advisory board. Site visits and field days will be conducted at the perennial demonstration plots seeded on farms in 2021-22. Other general activities will continue as originally planned in our proposal: we will train postdocs, students, and teachers; run experiments; collect and analyze data; develop models and run simulations; engage stakeholders through interviews, workshops, and presentations; disseminate our research through presentations, webinars, and field days; write manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed scientific and educational outlets; and engage with the media outlets to further disseminate our findings.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Overall impact statement: The C-CHANGE Grass2Gas team trained students and researchers, conducted experiments, collected data, published papers, engaged cooperators, shared knowledge, and delivered outreach. These efforts are supporting our short- and long-term project goal to advance a new biobased value chain through the production of renewable natural gas (RNG) and associated bioproducts through the anaerobic digestion (AD) of herbaceous biomass combined with manure. In the last year, we shared knowledge and provided training to 17graduate students, 20undergraduate students, 2 teachers, and classroom education to 350+ students. We furthermore published four scientific papers, including one dissertation and three peer-reviewed journal articles; delivered more than 35presentations reaching approximately 1,200 people; and disseminated project information through six field days, social media (e.g. @AgCCHANGE via Twitter) and the project website. We hosted an in-person annual meeting in Pennsylvania with 40+ faculty, researchers, and students which included a tour of an on-farm digester and transdisciplinary workgroups. C-CHANGE also hosted a virtual conference with more than 200 participants. News reports associated with our research have reached people working in agriculture and bioenergy all over the world, but especially in the Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the U.S. Our research continues to answer scientific questions related to the development of the new value chain. These efforts include developing new bioproducts and alleviating risks involved with adopting new technology, quantifying associated costs and benefits of changing agricultural and engineering practices, and training others to implement them and address existing challenges. Commercial partner Roeslein Alternative Energy has continued with construction of new sites--including one site with a project farm partner--to demonstrate the value chain. Collaboration with our farm partners has continued, with the establishment of 40+ additional acres of bioenergy plantings and harvesting of winter wheat and winter rye cover crops. Our teamwork in support of these outputs was documented through a report, completed by an external evaluator. Goal 1, Bioprocessing: Advance the anaerobic digestion of herbaceous feedstocks for the production of RNG and associated products. Bench-top experiments were conducted to evaluate key innovations focusing on co-product generation and increasing biogas yield from herbaceous feedstocks (OBJ 1.1). Results from these experiments will inform team research priorities and three corresponding manuscripts are being drafted. The technoeconomic modeling (TEA) from Y1 expanded to include a novel, two-stage digester system built from bench-scale experimental data. Multiple computational and bench-top studies are in progress to evaluate additional methods to decrease recalcitrance of herbaceous feedstocks, as well as upgrading biogas to higher-value chemicals (OBJ 1.2). Penn State Extension hosted a two-day Digester Short Course with 50+ people in attendance (OBJ 1.3). Design and implementation of updated co-digestion facilities for RNG production is proceeding at one Iowa farm with technical assistance from project collaborators (OBJ 1.4). Goal 2, Agroecosystems: Advance productive, profitable, and sustainable sources of herbaceous feedstocks. C-CHANGE G2G is supporting three ongoing experiments - one each in Iowa, Missouri, and Pennsylvania, respectively - to assess the agronomic and ecosystem impacts of herbaceous feedstock production (OBJ 2.1). We conducted preliminary data analysis on biomass feedstock production, changes in soil quality, and impacts to water quality (OBJ 2.2) as well as liquid manure injection research on PA farms to monitor for greenhouse gas emissions and to improve manure management (OBJ 2.2). We held Rapid Needs and Response sessions with 53 farmers, stakeholders, and subject matter experts in IA and produced two outreach publications on prairie management and anaerobic digestion (OBJ 2.4). We established additional commercial demonstration farm plots at two farms in Pennsylvania and monitored Y1 plantings in Iowa and Pennsylvania for establishment success (OBJ 2.4). Project leaders also co-authored an article inNature Sustainability (OBJ 2.3, 3.2). Goal 3, Human Dimensions: Advance the biobased value chain through stakeholder engagement. Goal 3 social scientists interviewed 37 individuals from 23 stakeholder entities across the potential value chain. The interviews are guided by a semi-structured interview format and use a biomass-to-biogas development scenario created collaboratively with Goal 1 and Goal 2 investigators. The interviews are systematically documenting diverse stakeholder perspectives to prepare for a series of stakeholder workshops in 2023. Interviews will continue in Y3. (OBJ 3.1). Initial models representing the biobased value chain were developed for the Grand River watershed, which spans southern Iowa and northern Missouri (OBJ 3.2). Model results from one study are published. Project leaders also co-authored an article in Nature Sustainability (OBJ 2.3, 3.2). We engaged students and teachers through four ongoing programs at Iowa State University (Ag Entrepreneurship Program, Science Bound) and Penn State University (Ag Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program, Center for Science and the Schools) including research experiences for undergraduates (REUs) and research experiences for teachers (RETs) during summer 2022 (OBJ 3.3). A detailed listing and enumeration of major project outputs is publicly available via the following reporting dashboard. [ https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=9b6cf73264934e0ab6e8b32e84a3f700 ]

Publications

  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Schulte, LA, BE Dale, S Bozzetto, M Liebman, G Souza, N Haddad, TL Richard, B Basso, RC Brown, JA Hilbert, JG Arbuckle. 2021. Meeting global challenges with regenerative agriculture producing food and energy. Nature Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00827-y
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Brown, RC, L Schulte Moore, T Daugaard. 2021. Letters: Carbon removal could, in fact, bring great benefits. Ames Tribune. Online: https://www.amestrib.com/story/opinion/letters/2021/10/03/letters-carbon-removal-could-fact-bring-great-benefits/5921670001/
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Richard, Tom. Harnessing the Power of Photosynthesis for Negative Emissions. SDG Action, 10 Nov. 2021, https://sdg-action.org/harnessing-the-power-of-photosynthesis-for-negative-emissions/
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Ciolkosz, D., Fathel, S., and Johnstonbaugh, E. (2021). Anaerobic Digesters for Renewable Natural Gas. Penn State Extension Fact Sheet.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: ISU Conservation Learning Group. 2022. What to expect: establishing prairie vegetation on your farm. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Ames, Iowa. https://www.conservationlearninggroup.org/files/page/files/establishing_perennial_prairie_infographic_web.pdf
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Fathel, S. L., Herbstritt, S., Reinford, B., and Richard, T. (in submission). Waste to worth: A case study of the biogas circular economy in Pennsylvania. Transactions of ASABE: 2022 Circular Food and Agricultural Systems Special Collection.
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2022 Citation: Hirl, K. 2022. Robust and Efficient Anaerobic Digestion of Lignocellulose. PhD Dissertation. Penn State University, State College, Pennsylvania.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Malone, R.W., P.L. OBrien, S. Herbstritt, B. D. Emmett, D.L. Karlen, T.C. Kaspar, K. Kohler, A. Radke, S.H. Lence, H. Wu and T.L. Richard. (2022). Rye soybean double-crop: planting method and N fertilization effects in the North Central US. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 112. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742170522000096
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Herbstritt, S., and Fathel, S. (2021). How Pennsylvania biogas can participate in the energy marketplace. Penn State Extension Renewable and Alternative Energy News (online resource).
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: ISU Conservation Learning Group. 2022. What is Anaerobic Digestion? Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Ames, Iowa. https://www.iowalearningfarms.org/resources/infographic-what-is-anaerobic-digestion?rq=anaerobic%20digestion
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Ciolkosz, D. (2022). Grass2Gas News. Penn State Extension C-Change Newsletter.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Khanna, M., Chen, L., Basso, B., Cai, X., Field, J. L., Guan, K., Jiang, C., Lark, T. J., Richard, T. L., Spawn-Lee, S. A., Yang, P., & Zipp, K. Y. 2021. Redefining marginal land for bioenergy crop production. GCB Bioenergy, 13, 1590 1609. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.12877
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: 2022. Iowa will test whether farmers can make money turning prairies, manure into renewable natural gas. Des Moines Register. https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2022/09/26/iowa-project-wins-80-million-grant-test-using-prairie-grass-manure-digesters-biogas/10380202002/
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Schulte Moore, L. 2020. Consortium for Cultivating Human and Naturally Regenerative Enterprises: Grass2Gas. URL: https://cchange.research.iastate.edu/grass2gas
  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2022 Citation: Schweitzer, D. 2022. C-CHANGE data dashboard. https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=9b6cf73264934e0ab6e8b32e84a3f700


Progress 09/01/20 to 08/31/21

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences for the C-CHANGE Grass2Gas team include for Goal 1, Bioprocessing: entrepreneurs and private industries in the bioenergy and bioproduct sectors; Goal 2, Agroecosystems: farmers and farmland owners, agribusiness, extension and natural resource professionals, and other agricultural stakeholders; and Goal 3, Human Dimensions: policy makers, state and federal agency personnel, people working for public interest non-profits organizations, teachers and students. Scientists from a wide variety of disciplines at universities and federal labs are a target audience across all three goals. Changes/Problems:Initial team building and knowledge sharing have been slowed by the need to entirely transition activities to an online format due to necessary precautions associated with curtailing the transmission of COVID-19. Establishment of the subcontracts was also slowed by remote and intermittent work by university staff, again as a result of COVID-19 precautions. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We have directly provided training to 15 graduate students, 9 undergraduate students, four teachers, and two high school students through direct work on the project. We have additionally integrated research data and practices into classes we teach or through guest teaching. Collectively these classes have reached 300+ students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We regularly interact with vested stakeholder groups to disseminate results and receive feedback on user information needs. Outlets have included direct engagement with entrepreneurs, industry, government, and nonprofit representatives by hosting a virtual conference; contact with farmers, farmland owners, crop advisers, and conservation personnel through research being conducted on farms; presentations to diverse and varied audiences at conferences, webinars, and a virtual field day; and through ad hoc meetings and direct consultation. During this reporting period we have made more than 15 presentations to a combination of scientific, agency, farm management, and conservation groups, reaching approximately 800 people. A presentation was made to USDA-NIFA Agroecosystems Program Project Directors on scaling from a Foundational to a Sustainable Agricultural Systems project. Since many presentations were made through a virtual format this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, most presentations were recorded and continue to be broadly available to the public. Information has also been distributed through a variety of media outlets, including Cedar Rapids Gazette, Energy News, Farm Progress, High Plains Journal, Quad-City Times, Sioux City Journal, Successful Farming, and The Conversation, among others. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Year 2 work will focus on continued teambuilding and knowledge sharing toward achieving research, education, extension, and commercialization goals. Research will continue on bioprocessing and technoeconomic analysis, synthesis of data from long-term field experiments, and the expansion and improvement of models. New human dimensions research will be initiated through structured interviews with stakeholders, and the interdisciplinary modeling of scenarios and possible outcomes of the grass-to-gas vision. In the educational area, we will support student innovation and entrepreneurship projects and summer research experiences for high school and university students, and teachers. In extension, we will increase engagement with farmers, other Extension professionals, and the project external advisory board. Additional demonstration plots will be seeded on commercial learning farms. Our commercial partner, Roeslein Alternative Energy, expects to have 1-2 new project sites operational in the next year. Other more general activities will continue as originally planned in our proposal: we will train postdocs, students, and teachers; run experiments; collect and analyze data; develop models and run simulations; engage stakeholders through interviews, workshops, and presentations; disseminate our research through presentations, webinars, and field days; write manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed scientific and educational outlets; and engage with the press corps to further disseminate our findings.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Overall impact statement: The C-CHANGE Grass2Gas team engaged cooperators, shared knowledge, trained people, conducted experiments, collected data, published papers, and delivered outreach in support of our short- and long-term project goal to advance a new biobased value chain based on the production of renewable natural gas (RNG) and associated bioproducts through the anaerobic digestion (AD) of herbaceous biomass combined with manure. In the last year, we shared knowledge and provided training to 15 graduate students, 9 undergraduate students, four teachers, and two high school students, and classroom education to 300+ students. We furthermore published 2 scientific papers, including 1 thesis and 1 peer-reviewed journal article; delivered 29 presentations reaching approximately 800 people; and disseminated project information through two field days and a website. We developed detailed data management protocols, and trained the team on them. A virtual conference attended by more than 200 people and news reports associated with our research have reached people working in agriculture and bioenergy all over the world, but especially in the Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the US. Our research lowers the barriers to the development of the new value chain by developing new bioproducts and alleviating risks involved with adopting new technology, quantifying associated costs and benefits of changing agricultural and engineering practices, and training others to seamlessly implement them. Commercial partner FDC Enterprises established bioenergy plantings on six commercial demonstration farms. Commercial partner Roeslein Alternative Energy is laying the groundwork for two new project sites to demonstrate the value chain. Our teamwork in support of these outputs was documented through a report, completed by an external evaluator. Goal 1, Bioprocessing: Advance the anaerobic digestion of herbaceous feedstocks for the production of RNG and associated products. We adopted an agile innovation approach to vet a series of potential technologies that could be used to improve biogas yield from mixed feedstocks (OBJ 1.1). We developed a technoeconomic model to evaluate potential technologies and mixtures with varying proportions of herbaceous feedstocks and manure (OBJ 1.2). We also initiated a series of bench-top experiments to compare with model outputs. Initial results are currently being written up in manuscript form. We held the first annual Penn State Digester Day on July 21, with 70+ people in attendance (OBJ 1.3). Goal 2, Agroecosystems: Advance productive, profitable, and sustainable sources of herbaceous feedstocks. C-CHANGE G2G is supporting three ongoing experiments - one each in Iowa, Missouri, and Pennsylvania, respectively - to assess the agronomic and ecosystem impacts of herbaceous feedstock production (OBJ 2.1). We additionally collected data on biomass feedstock production, changes in soil quality, and impacts to water quality (OBJ 2.2). New research into the liquid component of digestate as a fertilizer for crops was initiated on three farms in Pennsylvania (OBJ 2.2). We held a virtual field day on these topics on February 18, 2021, attended by 60 people (OBJ 2.4). We established bioenergy plantings on six commercial demonstration farms, five in Iowa and one in Pennsylvania (OBJ 2.4) Goal 3, Human Dimensions: Advance the biobased value chain through stakeholder engagement. We prepared for societal stakeholder engagement planned in Year 2 by developing a scenario and interview protocols (OBJ 3.1). Initial models representing the biobased value chain were developed for the Grand River watershed, which spans southern Iowa and northern Missouri (OBJ 3.2). Model results are currently being written up in manuscript form (OBJ 2.3, 3.2). We engaged students and teachers through four ongoing programs at Iowa State University (Ag Entrepreneurship Program, Science Bound) and Penn State University (Ag Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program, Center for Science and the Schools) including research experiences for teachers (RETs) and research experiences for undergraduates (REUs) during summer 2021 (OBJ 3.3). A detailed listing and enumeration of major project outputs is available via the following reporting dashboard. [ https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=9b6cf73264934e0ab6e8b32e84a3f700 ]

Publications

  • Type: Websites Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Schulte Moore, L. 2020. Consortium for Cultivating Human and Naturally Regenerative Enterprises: Grass2Gas. URL: https://cchange.research.iastate.edu/grass2gas
  • Type: Theses/Dissertations Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Audia, EM. 2021. Balancing Crop and ecosystem service production in the US Corn Belt through spatially targeted conservation. MS thesis. Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. https://doi.org/10.31274/etd-20210609-8
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Schulte Moore, L., D. Andersen, B. Sievers. (2021, May 20). Column: A Sustainable Solution for Iowa. Quad-City Times. Online: https://qctimes.com/opinion/columnists/column-a-sustainable-solution-for-iowa/article_04de9f9a-e9a2-56b1-8fc6-770c9020e346.html
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Schulte Moore, L. 2021. Climate-friendly farming strategies can improve the land and generate income for farmers. The Conversation. Online: https://theconversation.com/climate-friendly-farming-strategies-can-improve-the-land-and-generate-income-for-farmers-157220.
  • Type: Other Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Kimle, K. 2021. Continuum Ag, LLC  Scaling a Business: A Regenerative Agriculture Case Study. Agricultural Entrepreneurship Initiative, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Upadhaya, S. and J. Arbuckle, 2021. Examining Factors Associated with Farmers' Climate Adaptive and Maladaptive Actions in the U.S. Midwest. Frontiers in Climate. Online: https://doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2021.677548