The economic potential of switchgrass as a viable biofuel alternative

Jennifer E. Reutzel

ISU General Staff Papers from Iowa State University, Department of Economics

Abstract: To be commercially viable as a bioenergy feedstock, switchgrass must be cost-competitive. Switchgrass production and delivery costs are calculated for the Chariton Valley Switchgrass Biomass Project located in the Chariton Valley, Iowa. Sensitivity analyses are performed to determine which variables have the greatest impact on cost. Switchgrass production costs would require higher than expected market prices, and therefore various incentive payment options are considered. The incentive payments attempt to encapsulate the positive environmental attributes from the production of switchgrass as well as using switchgrass as a clean energy coal substitute. A modified CRP payment, carbon payment, and green tag payment are all considered, and their relative advantages and disadvantages are discussed. The modified CRP payment and the green tag payment are shown to have significant potential for offsetting high switchgrass costs of production.

Date: 2004-01-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://dr.lib.iastate.edu/server/api/core/bitstre ... 7d21c824fc55/content
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 403 Forbidden

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:isu:genstf:2004010108000018201

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ISU General Staff Papers from Iowa State University, Department of Economics Iowa State University, Dept. of Economics, 260 Heady Hall, Ames, IA 50011-1070. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Curtis Balmer ().