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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2014

Seasonal Parameterizations of the Tau-Omega Model Using the ComRAD Ground-Based SMAP Simulator

NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission is scheduled for launch in November 2014. In the prelaunch time frame, the SMAP team has focused on improving retrieval algorithms for the various SMAP baseline data products. The SMAP passive-only soil moisture product depends on accurate parameterization of the tau-omega model to achieve the required accuracy in soil moisture retrieval. During a field experiment (APEX12) conducted in the summer of 2012 under dry conditions in Maryland, the Combined Radar/Radiometer (ComRAD) truck-based SMAP simulator collected active/passive microwave time series data at the SMAP incident angle of 40 degrees over corn and soybeans throughout the crop growth cycle. A similar experiment was conducted only over corn in 2002 under normal moist conditions. Data from these two experiments will be analyzed and compared to evaluate how changes in vegetation conditions throughout the growing season in both a drought and normal year can affect parameterizations in the tau-omega model for more accurate soil moisture retrieval.

SMAP↗
NASA NTRS2017

Integrating Water Supply Constraints into Irrigated Agricultural Simulations of California

Simulations of irrigated croplands generally lack key interactions between water demand from plants and water supply from irrigation systems. We coupled the Water Evaluation and Planning system (WEAP) and Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT) to link regional water supplies and management with field-level water demand and crop growth. WEAP-DSSAT was deployed and evaluated over Yolo County in California for corn, rice, and wheat. WEAP-DSSAT is able to reproduce the results of DSSAT under well-watered conditions and reasonably simulate observed mean yields, but has difficulty capturing yield interannual variability. Constraining irrigation supply to surface water alone reduces yields for all three crops during the 1987-1992 drought. Corn yields are reduced proportionally with water allocation, rice yield reductions are more binary based on sufficient water for flooding, and wheat yields are least sensitive to irrigation constraints as winter wheat is grown during the wet season.

Agriculture; Irrigation; Water Resources Managemen↗
NASA NTRS2017

Estimating the Relative Water Content of Leaves in a Cotton Canopy

Remotely sensing plant canopy water status remains a long-term goal of remote sensing research. Established approaches to estimating canopy water status the Crop Water Stress Index, the Water Deficit Index and the Equivalent Water Thickness involve measurements in the thermal or reflective infrared. Here we report plant water status estimates based upon analysis of polarized visible imagery of a cotton canopy measured by ground Multi-Spectral Polarization Imager (MSPI). Such estimators potentially provide access to the plant hydrological photochemistry that manifests scattering and absorption effects in the visible spectral region.Twice during one day, +- 3 hours from solar noon, we collected polarized imagery and relative water content data on a cotton test plot located at the Arid Land Agricultural Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture, Maricopa, AZ. The test plot, a small portion of a large cotton field, contained stressed plants ready for irrigation. The evening prior to data collection we irrigated several rows of plants within the test plot. Thus, ground MSPI imagery from both morning and afternoon included cotton plants with a range of water statuses. Data analysis includes classifying the polarized imagery into sunlit reflecting, sunlit transmitting, shaded foliage and bare soil. We estimate the leaf surface reflection and interior reflection based upon the per pixel polarization and sunview directions. We compare our cotton results with our prior polarization results for corn and soybean leaves measured in the lab and corn leaves measured in the field.

Cotton Canopy↗
NASA NTRS2018

Spatially-Explicit Monitoring of Crop Photosynthetic Capacity Through the Use of Space-Based Chlorophyll Fluorescence Data

Plant functional traits such as photosynthetic capacity are critical parameters for terrestrial biosphere models. However, their spatial and temporal characteristics are still poorly represented. In this study, we used satellite observations of sun-induced fluorescence (SIF) to estimate top-of-canopy photosynthetic capacity (maximum carboxylation rate, V(sub cmax) at a reference temperature of 25 deg C) for crops, which was in turn utilized to simulate regional gross primary production (GPP). We first estimate the key parameter, V(sub cmax), in the widely-used FvCB photosynthesis model using field measurements of CO2 and water fluxes during 2007-2012 at seven crop eddy covariance flux sites over the US Corn Belt. The results showed that satellite far-red SIF retrievals have a stronger link to V(sub cmax) at the seasonal scale (R(squared)=0.70 for C4 and R(squared)=0.63 for C3 crop) as compared with widely-used vegetation indices. We calibrate an empirical model linking V(sub cmax) with SIF that was used to estimate spatially and temporally varying crop V(sub cmax) for the US Corn Belt region. The resulting V(sub cmax) maps are used together with meteorological data from MERRA reanalysis data and vegetation structural parameters derived from the satellite- based spectral reflectance data to constrain the Soil-Canopy Observation of Photosynthesis and Energy (SCOPE) balance model in order to estimate regional crop GPP. Our results show a substantial improvement in the seasonal and spatial patterns of cropland GPP when compared with crop yield inventory data. The evaluation with tall tower atmospheric CO2 measurements further supports our estimation of spatiotemporal V(sub cmax) from space-borne SIF. Considering that SIF has a direct link to photosynthetic activity, our findings highlight the potential to infer regional V(sub cmax) using remotely sensed SIF data and to use this information for a better quantification of regional cropland carbon cycles.

Drought↗
NASA NTRS2017

The Contribution of Solar Brightening to the US Maize Yield Trend

Predictions of crop yield under future climate change are predicated on historical yield trends1,2,3, hence it is important to identify the contributors to historical yield gains and their potential for continued increase. The large gains in maize yield in the US Corn Belt have been attributed to agricultural technologies4, ignoring the potential contribution of solar brightening (decadal-scale increases in incident solar radiation) reported for much of the globe since the mid-1980s. In this study, using a novel biophysical/empirical approach, we show that solar brightening contributed approximately 27% of the US Corn Belt yield trend from 1984 to 2013. Accumulated solar brightening during the post-flowering phase of development of maize increased during the past three decades, causing the yield increase that previously had been attributed to agricultural technology. Several factors are believed to cause solar brightening, but their relative importance and future outlook are unknown, making prediction of continued solar brightening and its future contribution to yield gain uncertain. Consequently, results of this study call into question the implicit use of historical yield trends in predicting yields under future climate change scenarios.

Matthijs Tollenaar↗
NASA NTRS2021

Argentina Food Security & Agriculture: Crop Monitoring and Forecasting for Argentina using NASA Satellite Observations

Early harvest information helps guide agricultural commodity assessments in Argentina, providing valuable planning information to identify potentially food-insecure regions, anticipate transportation and storage demands, predict price fluctuations, and project commodity trends. However, crop yield estimates are currently subjective, based on interviews with qualified informants (i.e., farmers, agribusiness actors). In partnership with the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange, we leveraged Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), and Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM IMERG) NASA Earth observations to develop a Google Earth Engine (GEE) toolset to monitor vegetation growth. The first component of the toolset produces spatial and temporal maps of temperature, precipitation, soil moisture, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), allowing users to visualize the influence of the region’s climate and weather. Next, we developed an autoregressive model to predict NDVI several months in advance. Lastly, we created a linear regression model of crop yield and NDVI for soybeans, corn, and wheat, and input the forecasted NDVI to generate a predicted crop yield output. The NDVI forecasting model produced accurate predictions at two, four, and six months when examining the most recent growing season. In the crop yield model, soybeans exhibited moderately strong correlation, wheat had consistent weak correlation, and corn varied from weak to strong correlation depending on zone. This information is vital for vegetation growth monitoring by identifying areas of high growth and allocating resources to areas of lower growth to efficiently maximize crop yields.

DEVELOP Tech Paper↗
NASA NTRS2021

Flood Monitoring and Crop Damage Assessment

In recent years, the occurrence and impact of inland and coastal flood events have become more frequent and damaging, especially within agricultural fields, due to the global climate change and consistent sea level rise. Monitoring and measuring the magnitude of flood events in a timely manner and assessing the subsequent crop damages accurately are precursors in minimizing detrimental consequences that could potentially lead to a global food security crisis. Traditional gauge-based measurements with sophisticated hydrological models are capable of monitoring flood events precisely but limited within the smaller spatial extent, time-consuming, and costly. In recent decades, advancement in airborne- and satellite-based remote sensing technologies offering products at a daily global spatial extent with various spectral resolution helps address the shortcomings of the traditional in situ approaches in flood monitoring. Furthermore, the methods such as classification and band ratioing using remote sensing products are simple and effective in assessing flood-induced agricultural damages. The combination of remote sensing products and geographic information systems along with the current development in web mapping, users now can get near real-time flood monitoring and crop damage assessments, albeit dependent upon the quality of available data. A case study to quantify the impact of the 2011 Missouri Mississippi River flooding on the surrounding cornfield was performed through a regression model. The model was trained using historical daily NDVI and corn yield across Nebraska and Missouri, and the overall accuracy in estimating corn yield was about 90%. The method implemented in this localized case study could be extended at a larger geographical scale.

Flood monitoring↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Cropland and Land-Clearing Emission Factors From Firex-AQ

The Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) campaign is a NOAA/NASA interagency intensive study of North American fires that took place from July to September 2019. Agricultural fires were sampled on 7 flights from August 21st to September 3rd, 2019. We present emission factors for gas-phase and aerosol-phase species for the different fuel types identified during the campaign. We discuss the dependence of these emission factors on both fuel type and burning characteristics such as modified combustion efficiency (MCE). We analyze 73 fires encompassing four different agricultural fuels (corn, rice, soybean, wheat) and four different types of land-clearing fuels (grass, slash, pile, shrub). Approximately half of all sampled fires were burning corn agricultural residue. We report emission factors for 118 VOCs, where two thirds of emissions are made up of species with lifetimes against oxidation by OH of less than 12 hours (near-field impacts) and the remainder have longer-lifetimes (far-field impacts). We also include an additional 9 aerosol species, 12 halogenated species, 5 sulfur-containing species, and 22 nitrogen-containing species, including NH3 and NOx. There is a statistically significant difference in MCE between agricultural and land-clearing fires that accounts for some of the differences in emission factors across these fuels. VOCs generally have a strong negative correlation with MCE but with different slopes across fuel types. There is a significant positive relationship between MCE and three gas-phase (NO, NO2, SO2) and two aerosol-phase (pCl, pNH4) species. Many emission factors show additional dependence factors beyond MCE that could be related to fuel composition, fire temperature, soil moisture, or other possible differences in burning conditions. Therefore, important differences in emission factors may result when averaging together different types of agricultural and land-clearing fuels in compilations for use in modeling efforts.

biomass burning↗
NASA NTRS2023

Future Climate Change Impacts on U.S. Agricultural Yields, Production, and Market

This study provides estimates of climate change impacts on U.S. agricultural yields and the agricultural economy through the end of the 21st century, utilizing multiple climate scenarios. Results from a process-based crop model project future increases in wheat, grassland, and soybean yield due to climate change and atmospheric CO2 change; corn and sorghum show more muted responses. Results using yields from econometric models show less positive results. Both the econometric and process-based models tend to show more positive yields by the end of the century than several other similar studies. Using the process-based model to provide future yield estimates to an integrated agricultural sector model, the welfare gain is roughly $16B/year (2019 USD) for domestic producers and $6.2B/year for international trade, but domestic consumers lose $10.6B/year, resulting in a total welfare gain of $11.7B/year. When yield projections for major crops are drawn instead from econometric models, total welfare losses of more than $28B/year arise. Simulations using the process-based model as input to the agricultural sector model show large future production increases for soybean, wheat, and sorghum and large price reductions for corn and wheat. The most important factors are those about economic growth, flooding, international trade, and the type of yield model used. Somewhat less, but not insignificant factors include adaptation, livestock productivity, and damages from surface ozone, waterlogging, and pests and diseases.

Agricultural sector↗
DOE OSTI2020

Subtask 1.3 – Integrated Carbon Capture and Storage for North Dakota Ethanol Production

The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), in partnership with Red Trail Energy, LLC (RTE), a North Dakota ethanol producer; the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC) Renewable Energy Program (REP); and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), conducted a feasibility and implementation study for a commercial carbon capture and storage (CCS) effort. This subtask provided technical support and developed recommended practices of how small-scale industrial CO2 emitters (<1,000,000 tonnes of CO2 emitted annually) may economically deploy CCS. The 64-million-gallon dry mill RTE ethanol facility, emitting an average 180,000 tonnes of CO2 annually, was the subject of the case study. The positive outcome of this research, which shows technical and economic potential for ethanol–CCS in North Dakota, has resulted in RTE acquiring an approved Permit to Drill on December 2, 2019, for a stratigraphic test well in early 2020, a necessary step toward a North Dakota CO2 Storage Facility Permit (SFP) for the RTE CCS effort. Outcomes include 1) validating the Broom Creek Formation as a regional target for CCS, 2) determining the full carbon life cycle of an industrial fuel production facility with CCS, 3) developing a field implementation plan (FIP) for small-scale CCS, and 4) determining the validity and pathway for using CCS to meet low-carbon fuel (LCF) standards. The technical team included the EERC, RTE, Trimeric Corporation, Schlumberger Carbon Services, and Computer Modelling Group (CMG). Findings from activities conducted November 2016 – May 2020 are summarized as follows. Several key steps have been accomplished toward validating the Broom Creek Formation as a CO2 injection and storage target at the RTE CCS site, including verification of the presence and structure of sandstone layers that may comprise the potential CO2 storage reservoir and the several thousand feet of overlying confining zone. Work included site characterization using existing data, interpretation of seismic data within the study area, and geologic modeling simulation of CO2 injection. Interpreted results estimate 3000 feet of confining zone between the Broom Creek Formation (storage target) and the lowermost underground source of drinking water (e.g., the Fox Hills Formation). The thickness of the Broom Creek injection target varies 230–420 ft within the survey area. Results were used to inform the location of a stratigraphic test well and associated characterization test program. No impediments were identified within the targeted CO2 storage complex that would prevent the project from moving forward. A stratigraphic test well is the next step to validate these results and to acquire remaining data necessary to develop a North Dakota CO2 SFP application. The EERC generated full carbon life cycle estimates for CCS integration with the RTE ethanol facility. Results indicated that an average 40% reduction in CO2 emissions is possible through CCS implementation. Approximately half of the carbon in the overall life cycle for a dry mill ethanol plant is generated through the fermentation process and emitted to the atmosphere; this is the CO2 stream targeted for CCS. The remaining carbon is attributed to corn feedstock farming (diesel, fertilizer), energy for fuel processing (natural gas, electricity), and transportation (diesel) of the fuel product. Life cycle carbon estimates are also affected by the anticipated energy consumption of a potential capture facility, which depend on the type of CO2 product generated. For example, a 30%–40% net CO2 emission reduction is estimated if a liquefied CO2 facility were incorporated compared to a 40%–50% net CO2 reduction if a supercritical “injection-grade” CO2 product is generated; i.e., more energy is required to further refine the CO2 stream, affecting the full carbon life cycle estimates. A CCS FIP was developed and initiated at the RTE CCS site, resulting in the development of several guidance documents: a CO2 Capture Process Design Package, a North Dakota CO2 geologic Storage Permits Template, and a Public Outreach Package for CCS in North Dakota. General FIP components include CO2 capture system, pipeline and well designs; monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA) plans; geologic characterization and testing programs; and permitting and outreach plans. Vendor bids were also acquired for the CO2 liquefaction facility. Near-surface characterization (groundwater and soil gas sampling) and geologic characterization (seismic survey) were initiated to inform development of a UIC Class VI-compliant MVA plan compliant with a North Dakota CO2 SFP. Designs (well and geologic testing) were completed for a stratigraphic test well compliant with a North Dakota CO2 SFP. In addition, the outreach plan was executed, including community open houses, meetings with city/county/state officials, and development of public materials. Although other entities continued to mature incentive programs in 2019–2020, California and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) currently provide the most advanced economic opportunities for CCS integrated with fuel production. The California Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) adopted a CCS Protocol in January 2019, allowing submittal of a design-based pathway (DBP) application for an approved temporary (not certified) carbon intensity value for a fully engineered facility. An ethanol–CCS DBP application to the California LCFS Program (officially approved February 28, 2020) was developed to show that the RTE CCS effort meets LCFS requirements. The approved DBP provides confidence to advance the project and supports potential investments. Other entities continue to mature incentive programs. The IRS issued guidance in February 2020 that addresses the definition of beginning of construction and revenue procedure on partnerships for the Enhancement of Carbon Dioxide Sequestration Credit (a.k.a. Section 45Q) CCS tax credit program; the IRS anticipates issuing further guidance on issues such as secure geologic storage, utilization qualifications, and recapture of claimed credits. Maturing incentive programs coupled with workable permitting regulations provide confidence to advance CCS projects in North Dakota and support financial investment to proceed with designing, constructing, and implementing CCS projects at small-scale fuel production facilities. The largest hurdles for CCS implementation at small-scale industrial systems are often business/economic-related (i.e., not technical). Market uncertainty already exists for agriculture-based alternative fuels such as corn ethanol, for which production has increased by ~33%, and prices have correspondingly lowered since 2015. Passing the Section 45Q tax credit program improves economic feasibility for CCS but may require external investors for a small business to achieve maximum benefits. Public–private partnerships with NDIC and DOE have resulted in foundational technical and regulatory knowledge, growing stakeholder confidence, and a pathway to implementation that enables similar industrial CCS projects in the region to advance. This subtask was funded through the EERC–DOE Joint Program on Research and Development for Fossil Energy-Related Resources Cooperative Agreement No. DE-FE0024233. Nonfederal funding was provided by NDIC and RTE. The authors would also like to thank CMG, ESRI, IHS, Neuralog, and Schlumberger for allowing the use of their software packages in support of this work.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2022

Identification of Critical Material Attributes in Lignin Streams Based on Pseudomonas putida Performance

Variability in chemical composition of corn stover feedstocks has been suggested to play a role in biocatalyst performance during the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to value-added compounds. In previous studies, we investigated the performance of Pseudomonas putida CJ781 - an engineered bacterium that converts aromatic compounds to muconate - on various lignin streams produced from the deacetylation of corn stover, and we found significant differences on muconate production. To better understand the origin of these differences, we down selected twenty-two compounds from literature - that had previously been detected as extractives in lignin streams - and we analyzed their concentrations in 12 lignin streams generated from different feedstocks. P. putida CJ781 was then cultivated in mock lignin streams supplemented with various concentrations of these compounds. Bacterial growth was tracked in microtiter plates and the performance was measured by comparing maximum growth rates among conditions. At maximum concentrations that may be found in lignin streams, sodium was the material attribute that limited growth rate in a greater extent, with a reduction in growth rate by 8 to 37%, depending on the counter ion, with sodium nitrate being the most inhibitory, followed by sodium acetate, sodium chloride, and sodium sulfate. Ammonium acetate was also found to be inhibitory at average concentrations of ammonium in lignin streams, reducing maximum growth rate by 18%. Overall, the data from this study has allowed to down select critical material attributes in lignin streams and process parameters that significantly affect the performance of P. putida and will be used as input to predictive models that aim to reduce risks attributed to feedstock variability in lignocellulosic biorefineries.

biocatalyst↗
DOE OSTI2023

Flexible Gasification of Coal and Biomass to Generate Carbon Free Electric Power and Hydrogen

This paper describes the development of a coal and biomass-fed plant concept to co-produce electric power and hydrogen with net-negative CO2 emissions under the aegis of the 21st Century Power Plant initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), whose goal is to advance innovative power plant concepts that are capable of flexible, net-zero carbon emission operations while producing cost-effective “blue” hydrogen to support economy-wide decarbonization goals. The proposed standalone plant will be in Nebraska, USA. The specified design feedstock is a hybrid blend of Powder River Basin (PRB) subbituminous coal from Wyoming and local Nebraska biomass (corn stover), 50 wt.% each (dry basis). Other potential feedstocks, including woody biomass (eastern red cedar) and waste plastic (auto shredder residue) were evaluated or reviewed as alternates. The proposed process block comprises a high-pressure, oxygen-blown fluidized bed gasifier (GTI Energy U-GAS® process) coupled with water gas shift, the Selexol process for acid gas (H2S and CO2) removal, and pressure-swing adsorption (PSA) to yield 8,500 kg/h of high-purity hydrogen. The off gas from the PSA unit is used in the power block (gas turbine combined cycle) to generate electric power to support the gasification process, hydrogen production, and 50 MWe net electric power to the grid. All major plant equipment including the gasifier, gas cleanup system, and power generation are commercially available and proven in other applications and considered at TRL 8-9. However, gasification of corn stover biomass is considered at TRL 6. Overall thermal efficiency of the plant is 50% (net HHV) with net atmospheric CO2 removal at a rate of 250-300,000 tpa. Design activities necessary to provide input to a FEED study (Phase II of the project), including the development of the Environmental Information Volume (EIV) for the host site, and an investment case, based on a pro-forma pre-FEED level cost estimate, have been completed and are described in detail in this paper.

Gülen, S. Can↗
DOE OSTI2024

A Step toward Process Electrification: Microwave-Assisted Co-Gasification of Waste Plastics and Biomass to Produce Clean Energy

Barely 9% of the 353 million metric tons of plastic waste produced worldwide over the last two decades has been recycled, with the majority of it being either landfilled or incinerated. Recycling and upcycling plastic waste is thus essential in mitigating environmental pollution. Gasification is the thermochemical conversion of solid carbon feedstock at high temperatures using a gasifying agent to produce hydrogen-rich syngas. Existing gasification technologies are energy-intensive and require high operating temperatures (>1000 °C), leaving them uncommercial. Microwave heating has sparked attention in a variety of chemical processes due to its specific advantages over traditional heating technologies, such as rapid and selective heating to improve process efficiency. NETL’s research team recently investigated the synergistic advantages of corn stover and mixed plastics in producing hydrogen-rich syngas via microwave heating. As a continuation of the research, this study provides an outlook over the non-catalytic versus catalytic effects of plastic-corn stover gasification via process electrification to enhance H2 production, minimize undesired tar, and improve process efficiency. Our aim is to provide complete electrification of the existing gasification process by using waste plastics as a starting block to produce valuable fuel and support the nation’s net zero goals.

Abedin, Ashraf↗
DOE OSTI2024

Herbaceous Feedstock 2022 State of Technology Report

The U.S. Department of Energy promotes production of advanced liquid transportation fuels from lignocellulosic biomass by funding fundamental and applied research that advances the state of technology (SOT). As part of its involvement in this mission, Idaho National Laboratory completes an annual SOT report for nth-plant and 1st-plant herbaceous biomass feedstock logistics. The purpose of the SOT is to provide the status of feedstock supply system technology development for herbaceous biomass to biofuels relative to technical targets and cost goals from specific design cases, based on data and experimental results. Although conventional feedstock supply systems form the backbone of the emerging biofuels industry, they have limitations that restrict widespread implementation on a national scale. To meet the demands of the future industry, the feedstock supply system must shift from the conventional system to what has been termed “advanced” supply systems. In advanced designs, a distributed network of aggregation and processing centers, termed “depots,” are employed near the points of biomass production (i.e., the field or forest) to reduce feedstock variability and produce feedstocks of a uniform format, moving toward biomass commoditization. The 2022 Herbaceous SOT is part of a vision of achieving an implemented advanced feedstock supply system, which produces a stable, tradable commodity at the decentralized distributed depot. It utilizes feedstock fractionation by incorporating technologies that can separate the biomass into its anatomical fractions (leaves, husks, stems and cobs) to reduce impurities and produce fractions that satisfy downstream quality considerations. By using a series of air classification steps, this strategy can reduce the extrinsic ash in corn stover and produce enriched tissue fractions that can be blended to a conversion specification or converted individually in optimized biochemical conversion campaigns. Additionally, a majority of the leaves (which do not meet the quality specification) are separated out early and can be supplied to alternate markets. The 2022 Herbaceous SOT incorporates an advanced biomass fractionation and processing system to produce pellets enriched tissues from three-pass corn stover. The resulting enriched pellets are delivered to the biorefinery individually where they can be blended to a specification or converted in campaigns where the conditions are optimized for each tissue. Unused fractions can be sent to a a midstream market or to a different conversion process that is better suited to their properties to offset the cost of the delivered feedstock. The main benefits from the proposed system can be summarized as: (1) $6.86/dry ton (2016$) lower cost for the air classification due to elimination of the requirement to discard the high ash lights fraction; (2) $1.56/dry ton lower delivered cost by selling the unsuitable leaf fraction into the feed market as a midstream co-product (assuming a selling price that is 11% higher than their cost of production); (3) 0.98% increase in carbohydrate content (from 60.16% to 61.14%); and (4) 0.97% decrease in ash content (from 6.00% to 5.03%) compared to the 2021 Herbaceous SOT. Overall, the 2022 nth-plant Herbaceous SOT predicts a modeled delivered feedstock cost of $78.64/dry ton (2016$) if it is assumed that the enriched leaf fraction is sold at its production cost; this is a slight increase of $0.43/dry ton increase from the 2021 Herbaceous SOT nth-Supply case cost. The increased cost derived from a $0.38/dry ton increase in transportation and handling cost to procure more biomass (to replace the enriched leaf fraction that was not delivered to the biorefinery. The total preprocessing cost was $0.27/dry ton higher than the 2021 result because of updates to energy consumption, purchasing price and dry matter loss data for the rotary shear ($3.00/dry ton increase) and the pelleting mill ($4.52/dry ton increase). The data utilized were generated in pilot-scale tests in the Biomass Feedstock National User Facility (BFNUF) at INL and at Forest Concepts, including tests for rotary shear and pelleting of the air classified fractions. A greenhouse gas emissions analysis was performed by Argonne National Laboratory using the most up to date version of the Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation model (GREET®). The analysis showed an increase of 17.34 kg CO2e/dry ton from the 2021 SOT (67.71 kg CO2e/ton in the 2021 Herbaceous SOT to 85.05 kg CO2e/ton in the 2022 Herbaceous SOT). The net increase is primarily attributed to increased energy consumption in pelleting mill.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Decarbonizing Hydrogen Production: Assessing A Net-Negative Pathway

Hydrogen is gaining prominence as a key factor in the world's transition to a cleaner energy future. The International Energy Agency (IEA)'s Global Hydrogen Review 2023 reports that the number of low-emission hydrogen production projects is increasing rapidly. The potential for growth in new applications such as heavy industry, transportation, and power generation is significant. The IEA urges more decisive action to spur demand for low-emission hydrogen to achieve climate goals. While hydrogen is produced through various industrial methods, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, low-carbon hydrogen is critical for mitigating climate change and is incentivized by the Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit (45V). To this end, we have evaluated a commercial technology that can produce low- or negative-carbon hydrogen via ethanol catalytic oxidative reforming. This study assessed life cycle greenhouse gas emissions (carbon intensity or CI) associated with the hydrogen production technology. A total of 24 scenarios were evaluated, encompassing (a) Gen1 versus Gen2 ethanol inputs, (b) carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) of upstream fermentation CO2, and (c) oxygen sourcing via air separation unit (ASU) versus purchased or on-site production of oxygen as a byproduct of hydrogen electrolysis with a proton exchange membrane (PEM). Key findings include that the base case CI for hydrogen production using Gen2 ethanol from corn stover is lower than Gen1 dry mill corn ethanol. The study also points out that the CI for hydrogen production using PEM-O2 is lower than that using ASU-O2, whether the PEM-O2 is produced on-site or off-site (importing). When sourcing oxygen from on-site PEM-O2, the Gen1 and Gen2 ethanol-derived hydrogen exhibit favorable net-negative CI values for all evaluated scenarios, especially if the upstream ethanol CCS is included. As a reference, the 45V regulatory threshold for generating clean hydrogen tax credits is a CI below 0.45 kg CO2e/kg hydrogen.

BIOMASS FUELS,HYDROGEN↗
DOE OSTI2021

Screening of alkali-assisted storage conditions to define the operational window of deacetylation within storage systems in the bioenergy supply chain

Overcoming biomass heterogeneity and associated recalcitrance to thermal, chemical, and enzymatic depolymerization is a necessary but challenging aspect of valorizing lignocellulosic biomass to fuels and chemicals. Here, this study explores how this recalcitrance can be reduced during the supply chain unit operation of storage, which is required for seasonally harvested agricultural residues to maintain constant throughput at a biorefinery. In this work, partial alkali pretreatment was performed just prior to corn stover entering storage, which had the benefit of providing a high pH environment entering storage such that soluble sugars were preserved and saponified acetyl groups in hemicellulose. This work investigated a range of viable conditions where saponification and preservation occur simultaneously by varying the moisture content (40% and 60%) and concentrations of sodium hydroxide (low and high) during aerobic and anaerobic storage. Anaerobic conditions preserved overall dry matter below 5% in the three scenarios evaluated, and the highest alkali loading solubilized up to 15% lignin, 18% xylan, and 50% of acetate, meanwhile doubling the extractable components. Scanning electron microscopy images highlighted potential physical impacts including cell-wall disruption near vascular bundles, pitting within parenchyma cells, and cell-wall distortion. Techno-economic assessment indicated that this storage approach and associated logistics system is economically competitive with a conventional approach using low-moisture bales.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Effect of biomass liquefaction on glucose and xylose prices predicted by National Renewable Energy Laboratory biochemical sugar model

Abstract The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published a model in 2017 that enables the minimum selling price of lignocellulosic sugar to be calculated. The model can be modified to suit any biomass feedstock and operational design. In the present case, the model is used to understand the economics of a process configuration that incorporates liquefaction as a preprocessing step in corn‐stover‐fed biorefinery. This study demonstrates a quantitative approach utilizing an existing biorefinery setup to simulate the biomass liquefaction technique while estimating the price of the resulting sugar product. The objective is to understand whether the addition of liquefaction methodology – and the substitution of acid pretreatment – can reduce the cost of lignocellulosic sugars. The reason for setting up a liquefaction unit at the start is to reduce the yield stress of biomass slurry so that the flow remains unrestricted downstream. The liquefaction process is also unique because it uses no chemicals and saves the cost of pretreatment. The pretreatment step is bypassed because the output of liquefaction can be fed into enzyme hydrolysis just after simple cooking. The liquefaction process can be performed in three modes: enzyme, enzyme mimetic, and a combination of enzyme and enzyme mimetic. The results from the BC1707 model indicate the minimum cost for the enzyme liquefaction route. © 2022 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Industrial Chemistry and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗
DOE OSTI2022

MOF-Transformed In 2 O 3-x @C Nanocorn Electrocatalyst for Efficient CO 2 Reduction to HCOOH

For electrochemical CO 2 reduction to HCOOH, an ongoing challenge is to design energy efficient electrocatalysts that can deliver a high HCOOH current density (J HCOOH ) at a low overpotential. Indium oxide is good HCOOH production catalyst but with low conductivity. In this work, we report a unique corn design of In 2 O 3-x @C nanocatalyst, wherein In 2 O 3-x nanocube as the fine grains dispersed uniformly on the carbon nanorod cob, resulting in the enhanced conductivity. Excellent performance is achieved with 84% Faradaic efficiency (FE) and 11 mA cm –2 J HCOOH at a low potential of – 0.4 V versus RHE. At the current density of 100 mA cm –2 , the applied potential remained stable for more than 120 h with the FE above 90%. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the abundant oxygen vacancy in In 2 O 3-x has exposed more In 3+ sites with activated electroactivity, which facilitates the formation of HCOO* intermediate. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy also confirms In 3+ as the active site and the key intermediate of HCOO* during the process of CO 2 reduction to HCOOH.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗