Economic development through biomass system integration: Summary report

Alfalfa is a well-known and widely-planted crop that offers environmental and soil conservation advantages when grown as a 4-year segment in a 7-year rotation with corn and soybeans. Alfalfa fixes nitrogen from the air, thereby enhancing soil nitrogen and decreasing the need for manufactured nitrogen fertilizer. With alfalfa yields of 4 dry tons per acre per year and the alfalfa leaf fraction sold as a high-value animal feed the remaining alfalfa stem fraction can be economically viable fuel feedstock for a gasifier combined cycle power plant. This report is a feasibility study for an integrated biomass power system, where an energy crop (alfalfa) is the feedstock for a processing plant and a power power plant (integrated gasification combined cycle) in a way that benefits the facility owners. The sale of an animal feed co-product and electricity both help cover the production cost of alfalfa and the feedstock processing cost, thereby requiring neither the electricity or leaf meal to carry the total cost. The power plant provides an important continous demand for the feedstock and results in continous supply of leaf product to provide a reliable supply needed for the leaf meal product