TY - JOUR
T1 - Improving water quality in the Chesapeake Bay using payments for ecosystem services for perennial biomass for bioenergy and biofuel production
AU - Woodbury, Peter B.
AU - Kemanian, Armen R.
AU - Jacobson, Michael
AU - Langholtz, Matthew
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017
PY - 2018/7
Y1 - 2018/7
N2 - Replacing row crops with perennial bioenergy crops may reduce nitrogen (N) loading to surface waters. We estimated the benefits, costs, and potential for replacing maize with switchgrass to meet required N loading reduction targets for the Chesapeake Bay (CB) of 26.9 Gg y−1. After subtracting the potential reduction in N loading due to improved N fertilizer practices for maize, a further 22.8 Gg y−1 reduction is required. Replacing maize with fertilized switchgrass could reduce N loading to the CB by 18 kg ha−1 y−1, meeting 31% of the N reduction target. The break-even price of fertilized switchgrass to provide the same profit as maize in the CB is 111 $ Mg−1 (oven-dry basis throughout). Growers replacing maize with switchgrass could receive an ecosystem service payment of 148 $ ha−1 based on the price paid in Maryland for planting a rye cover crop. For our estimated average switchgrass yield of 9.9 Mg ha−1, and the greater N loading reduction of switchgrass compared to a cover crop, this equates to 24 $ Mg−1. The annual cost of this ecosystem service payment to induce switchgrass planting is 13.29 $ kg−1 of N. Using the POLYSYS model to account for competition among food, feed, and biomass markets, we found that with the ecosystem service payment for switchgrass of 25 $ Mg−1 added to a farm-gate price of 111 $ Mg−1, 11% of the N loading reduction target could be met while also producing 1.3 Tg of switchgrass, potentially yielding 420 dam3 y−1 of ethanol.
AB - Replacing row crops with perennial bioenergy crops may reduce nitrogen (N) loading to surface waters. We estimated the benefits, costs, and potential for replacing maize with switchgrass to meet required N loading reduction targets for the Chesapeake Bay (CB) of 26.9 Gg y−1. After subtracting the potential reduction in N loading due to improved N fertilizer practices for maize, a further 22.8 Gg y−1 reduction is required. Replacing maize with fertilized switchgrass could reduce N loading to the CB by 18 kg ha−1 y−1, meeting 31% of the N reduction target. The break-even price of fertilized switchgrass to provide the same profit as maize in the CB is 111 $ Mg−1 (oven-dry basis throughout). Growers replacing maize with switchgrass could receive an ecosystem service payment of 148 $ ha−1 based on the price paid in Maryland for planting a rye cover crop. For our estimated average switchgrass yield of 9.9 Mg ha−1, and the greater N loading reduction of switchgrass compared to a cover crop, this equates to 24 $ Mg−1. The annual cost of this ecosystem service payment to induce switchgrass planting is 13.29 $ kg−1 of N. Using the POLYSYS model to account for competition among food, feed, and biomass markets, we found that with the ecosystem service payment for switchgrass of 25 $ Mg−1 added to a farm-gate price of 111 $ Mg−1, 11% of the N loading reduction target could be met while also producing 1.3 Tg of switchgrass, potentially yielding 420 dam3 y−1 of ethanol.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85011312056&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85011312056&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.biombioe.2017.01.024
DO - 10.1016/j.biombioe.2017.01.024
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85011312056
SN - 0961-9534
VL - 114
SP - 132
EP - 142
JO - Biomass and Bioenergy
JF - Biomass and Bioenergy
ER -