Economics of Sourcing Cellulosic Feedstock for Energy Production

Cole Gustafson, Thein Maung, David M. Saxowsky, John Nowatzki and Tatjana Miljkovic

No 103260, 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association

Abstract: This study investigates the economics of supplying wheat straw and corn stover within 100 mile radius of a potential new biorefinery in southeast North Dakota. In particular, straw and stover total delivery costs, potential straw and stover supply sites and least cost transportation routes are identified using a linear programming transport model and a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) mapping system. We show that USDA/NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) future crop residue removal rate policies will be important for determining whether it is economically viable to harvest crop residues as potential feedstock for energy generation. Increase in residue removal rates narrow the size of residue supply areas and consequently result in lowering total transportation costs. There is an economic tradeoff between residue collection density and distance from the biorefinery. Most wheat residues are highly concentrated in the north, some distance from the biorefinery. Relying solely on wheat straw for supply needs require longer transportation distances which increases total cost. Using a combination of wheat and corn residues lowers total transportation costs. Since most wheat/corn residues are densely concentrated in north/south, regional highways would likely be the routes used often to transport the residues, as compared to interstate highways. Increased traffic volumes due to the hauling of crop residues would require additional investment in improving road conditions.

Keywords: Community/Rural/Urban Development; Crop Production/Industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35
Date: 2011-07-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-geo
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/103260/files/AAEAPaper1_042711.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaea11:103260

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.103260

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2011 Annual Meeting, July 24-26, 2011, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().