Garlock, R.J., B. Bals, V. Balan and B.E. Dale
Presented at the GLBRC Sustainability Retreat (2010-02-10 to 2010-02-12 )
Compared to conventional agriculture, low-input mixed-species feedstocks, such as biomass from native prairie grasslands, require minimal agronomic inputs and maintenance and provide more valuable ecosystem services. However, these fields may not produce the high biomass and process yields necessary to be economically competitive. In order to investigate the feasibility of using low-input mixed-species feedstocks for biofuel and animal feed production, we tested five replicates (fields) of differing species composition from the old field treatment of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) intensive field site. Ammonia fiber expansion (AFEX) pretreatment followed by either enzymatic hydrolysis or in vitro rumen digestibility were performed on these samples in order to determine their value as both a biofuel feedstock and an animal feed compared to untreated material. An economic analysis from the perspective of the biorefinery was also conducted and the results were compared to corn stover and a late-successional old field sample. The results indicate that the biorefinery economics depend heavily on the overall sugar content and the digestibility of the feedstock, which in turn is highly dependent on the species composition for mixed-species samples.
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