Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have discovered several benefits of growing prairie grass for making sustainable aviation fuels.
Switchgrass has grown in Midwestern soils for millions of years, but recent studies shared by Phys.org pinpointed significant economic and environmental considerations for using it to help decarbonize the aviation industry.
The switchgrass crop is forecasted to produce up to 230 million dry tons of biomass annually and is a particularly good candidate for SAF due to several beneficial traits.
It can be harvested each year for a decade or more without repeated replanting, requires minimal nitrogen fertilizer compared to corn, and provides valuable ecosystem services, the report detailed.
The key to these studies is that the U of I researchers focused on finding particularly productive switchgrass cultivars, while tracking fertilizer use and did so at a field scale to gauge real-world potential.
"All the data that helps us estimate switchgrass suitability for SAF comes from small plot research or older forage-type switchgrass cultivars. We wanted to test high-yielding switchgrass cultivars on a larger scale to provide a more accurate picture of the benefits these new cultivars provide," said D.K. Lee, senior author of both studies and a professor at the school.
The aviation industry is responsible for 2% of the world's carbon pollution, and sustainable aviation fuel has the potential to drastically reduce that number, according to the Department of Energy.
Compared with regular jet fuel, using 100% SAF could reduce planet-warming pollution in the industry by up to 94%, depending on which feedstocks are used and how it's developed.
The International Civil Aviation Organization reported that over 360,000 commercial flights have already used SAF. Adoption is also growing, going from five million gallons consumed in 2021 to 24.5 million gallons in 2023.
To gauge the full economic potential and environmental impact of growing switchgrass for SAF, the researchers spent five years growing five different cultivars across four states, while tracking nitrogen fertilizer use.
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Definitely 👍 They found that Independence and Liberty cultivars were the most productive, and they can potentially generate higher profits than conventional row crops on less productive land, according to Nictor Namoi, who worked on the study.
Nitrous oxide pollution and nitrate leaching were significantly lower than in corn crops, but that was expected given the reduced amount of nitrogen fertilizer used with switchgrass.
There was one quirk with the crop, however, in that it produced more carbon pollution than corn after the second year.
"I wasn't expecting that," Namoi said. "But there's a lot more biomass belowground in switchgrass, about five times that of corn."
After years of study, the research team felt that the results were positive and that this SAF feedstock crop could help farmers earn more, while contributing to a cleaner environment by reducing reliance on dirtier fuel alternatives.
"Our research ensures that we can feed productive cultivars into the SAF production system once the economy and the technology [are] ready to transition," Namoi concluded.
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