Energy crop

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs energy crops scheme plantation in the United Kingdom. Energy crops of this sort can be used in conventional power stations or specialised electricity generation units, reducing the amount of fossil fuel-derived carbon dioxide emissions.

Energy crops are low-cost and low-maintenance crops grown solely for renewable bioenergy production (not for food). The crops are processed into solid, liquid or gaseous fuels, such as pellets, bioethanol or biogas. The fuels are burned to generate electrical power or heat.

The plants are generally categorized as woody or herbaceous. Woody plants include willow[1] and poplar, herbaceous plants include Miscanthus x giganteus and Pennisetum purpureum (both known as elephant grass). Herbaceous crops, while physically smaller than trees, store roughly twice the amount of CO2 (in the form of carbon) below ground compared to woody crops.[2]

Through biotechnological procedures such as genetic modification, plants can be manipulated to create higher yields. Relatively high yields can also be realized with existing cultivars.[3]: 250  However, some additional advantages such as reduced associated costs (i.e. costs during the manufacturing process[4]) and less water use can only be accomplished by using genetically modified crops.

  1. ^ Mola-Yudego, Blas; Aronsson, Pär (September 2008). "Yield models for commercial willow biomass plantations in Sweden". Biomass and Bioenergy. 32 (9): 829–837. Bibcode:2008BmBe...32..829M. doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2008.01.002.
  2. ^ Agostini, Francesco; Gregory, Andrew S.; Richter, Goetz M. (15 January 2015). "Carbon Sequestration by Perennial Energy Crops: Is the Jury Still Out?". BioEnergy Research. 8 (3): 1057–1080. Bibcode:2015BioER...8.1057A. doi:10.1007/s12155-014-9571-0. PMC 4732603. PMID 26855689.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kirakosyan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Smith, Rebecca A.; Cass, Cynthia L.; Mazaheri, Mona; Sekhon, Rajandeep S.; Heckwolf, Marlies; Kaeppler, Heidi; de Leon, Natalia; Mansfield, Shawn D.; Kaeppler, Shawn M.; Sedbrook, John C.; Karlen, Steven D.; Ralph, John (2 May 2017). "Suppression of CINNAMOYL-CoA REDUCTASE increases the level of monolignol ferulates incorporated into maize lignins". Biotechnology for Biofuels. 10 (1): 109. doi:10.1186/s13068-017-0793-1. PMC 5414125. PMID 28469705.