Getting energy from the land and practicing good conservation are not mutually exclusive. A federal ag deartment researcher says we can have both through using biomass.

USDA researcher Doug Karlen, who works at the Agricultural Research Service’s National Soil Tilth Lab in Ames, Iowa, told attendees of the recent USDA Outlook Forum that conservation and energy from biomass can be compatible if three things are considered.

“If we utilize multiple feedstock options, multiple conversion platforms and recognize that’s there’s no single solution.”

Karlen also told the group that you have to consider how land conditions vary. In addition, biomass cannot always be seen as just a waste waiting to be made useful. He points out that the trade-off for using biomass from fields for bioenergy is that there is no residue left over to renew the soil with nutrients, as well as losing the habitat for wildlife those crop leftovers provided. Karlen says that’s why it is so important to have a diversity of biomass products within a certain area.

pPoplar trees could get more popular if they prove to be the next big ethanol feedstock./p
pimg hspace=”9″ vspace=”0″ align=”right” border=”1″ class=”right border” style=”float:right;margin: 0 0 0 9px;border: 1px solid #555;padding: 0;”/a href=”http://www.eng.umd.edu/media/pressreleases/pr022510_poplar.html” A team of researchers/a at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Bowie State University is working on ways to use the hybrid trees to make ethanol and other biofuels, since they could be grown on plantations and harvested without affecting existing woodlands. Poplar, which is also known as cottonwood or aspen, is already commonly cultivated for the production of paper and timber./p
pThe study is funded by a $3.2 million, four-year grant from the National Science Foundation’s Plant Genome Research Project, which supports research on plants seen as having economic and agricultural importance. Using the recently completed poplar genome, the researchers are focusing on ways to improve the tree’s nitrogen processing capability, which will enhance its growth rate and feasibility for use in fuel production. /p
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pa href=”http://domesticfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Spalding.jpg” img src=”http://domesticfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Spalding.jpg” alt=”" title=”Spalding” width=”147″ height=”150″ class=”alignright size-full wp-image-22802″ //aA researcher at Iowa State University is genetically modifying algae to make it a better feedstock for biodiesel.br/
a href=”http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=4032″ br/
This article from Biodiesel Magazine/a says Martin Spalding, ISU professor of genetics, development and cell biology,has received a $4.37 million grant U.S. Department of Energy to stack traits in algae, specifically, one type of alga, Chlamydomonas, whose genome has already been mapped out:/p
pemSpalding hopes stacking Chlamydomonas’ desirable traits will lead to more oil production and thermal resistance, ultimately developing a desirable feedstock for biodiesel and other renewable fuels production./p
p“We have a sequenced genome, we understand the metabolism, and we have the tools available to us to work with this alga,” Spalding said. Much of the current research on algae is being conducted on wild strains that have certain desirable traits such as high oil yield, but Spalding said, “The limitation with that strategy is that it has no flexibility because the algae can’t be manipulated genetically.”/p
pSince the Chlamydomonas genome is already mapped, however, work can be done to tailor the genetic makeup of this alga to meet the growing biofuel industry’s needs./em/p
pIt’s a three-year study that Spalding will conduct with some fellow ISU professors and Purdue University researchers as well./p
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