Open AccessLife cycle assessment of native plants and marginal lands for bioenergy agriculture in Kentucky as a model for south‐eastern USA
Author(s) -
DEBOLT SETH,
CAMPBELL J. ELLIOTT,
SMITH Jr. RAY,
MONTROSS MICHAEL,
STORK JOZSEF
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
gcb bioenergy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.378
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1757-1707
pISSN - 1757-1693
DOI - 10.1111/j.1757-1707.2009.01023.x
Subject(s) - bioenergy , life cycle assessment , renewable energy , environmental science , cellulosic ethanol , agriculture , marginal land , agricultural land , agroforestry , environmental protection , ecology , engineering , production (economics) , biology , economics , cellulose , macroeconomics , chemical engineering
The Brookings Institute analysis rate both Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky (USA) as two of the nation's largest carbon emitters. This high carbon footprint is largely due to the fact that 95% of electricity is produced from coal. Kentucky has limited options for electric power production from low carbon sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric. Other states (TN, IN, OH, WV, and IL) in this region are similarly limited in renewable energy capacity. Bioenergy agriculture could account for a proportion of renewable energy needs, but to what extent is unclear. Herein, we found that abandoned agricultural land, not including land that is in fallow or crop rotation, aquatic ecosystems, nor plant‐life that had passed through secondary ecological succession totaled 1.9 Mha and abandoned mine‐land totaled 0.3 Mha, which combined accounted for 21% of Kentucky's land mass. A life cycle assessment was performed based on local yield and agronomic data for native grass bioenergy agriculture. These data showed that utilizing Kentucky's marginal land to grow native C 4 grasses for cellulosic ethanol and bioelectricity may account for up to 13.3% and 17.2% of the states 2 trillion MJ energy consumption and reduce green house gas emissions by 68% relative to gasoline.