Grainnet

Michigan State Researchers Look at Growing Energy Crops on Marginal Land

By Susan Reidy, BioFuels Journal editor

Researchers at Michigan State University, East Lansing, are studying how to turn abandoned industrial sites into sources for renewable fuels.

This fall, they will harvest corn and oilseed crops grown on a brownfield (abandoned industrial or commercial property that may be contaminated), and study whether the crops can be used to produce biofuels.

If feasible, growing crops on brownfields could help remediate the sites and also provide new acreage for energy crops that doesn’t compete with food crops. Michigan has about 500 brownfield sites.

“The scale-up goes beyond brownfields. It could include all types of marginal sites that wouldn’t be used for food production,” said Kurt Thelen, lead researcher and MSU professor of crop and soil sciences.

“There are broad implications from the very localized to some of the bigger problems out there facing society.”

The three-year study is supported by automaker DaimlerChrysler, NextEnergyProject GREEN, the state’s plant industry initiative at MSU.

Objectives

Thelen said researchers have three objectives:

--Proof of concept: Can crops be grown on brownfields?

--Will the oilseeds crops grown on the brownfields produce biodiesel that will meet the as-yet-to-be established national specification for B20?

--Will these crops help with remediation of the brownfields?

As part of the study, researchers are growing corn crops and switchgrass as well as oilseed crops including soybeans, canola, and sunflowers on two acres of a former industrial dump site in Oakland County, MI.

Similar crops are being grown on good agricultural land on the MSU campus to compare yields and the quality of the biofuel produced, Thelen said.

Over the winter months, researchers will evaluate the fundamental qualities of the brownfield-grown crops including the starch component of the corn and the fatty acid profile of the oilseeds.

Plantings and evaluation are planned for the next two years, Thelen said.

“We need three years at a minimum to really evaluate the production potential and quality aspects,” he said.

“Quality is dependent on weather in a certain year so to get scientifically sound results we need to carry it over a couple of years.”

The land being used for the study is a mature site, Thelen said, which means a lot of remediation work already has been completed.

One question researchers need to answer is whether the crops will pick up contaminants from the brownfields and pass that into the biofuels produced, he said.

“We’re not expecting to find any problems in the crop at this point,” Thelen said. “There may be some sites that are still early in the remediation process where it may be problematic.”

For more information, call Thelen at 517-355-0271, ext. 232.