Objective
The objective of this shared cost research project is to evaluate switchgrass biomass production potential for energy purposes in Europe, to generate sufficient data to initiate large scale production trials and to take well founded decision on further research and development of switchgrass.
Switchgrass is a 3 ligno-cellulosic C4 grass well adapted to most of North Amerika where it is used a.o. for biomass production. Arguments for introducing switchgrass as a biomass crop for energy production in Europe are:
- Low cost of establishment because it is seeded;
- It is cold tolerant;
- High yield potential with low water and fertilizer inputs;
- Wide geographic adaptation.
Some preliminary data collected in Northern Europe indicates that seed establishment is successful and yields are promising. The knowledge generated about this grass in North America and the similarity in climates between its native environment and Europe make introduction of switchgrass for biomass production both very promising and relatively inexpensive. This project also benefits from this, making it very cost effective.
The project will be executed by six partners; Centre for Plant Fibre Research and Biomass Technology Group (NL), Bundesanstalt fur Landwirtschaft Braunschweig-Volkenrode (DE), Rothamsted Experiment Station (GB), Center for Renewable Energy Sources (GR) and Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie, l'Energie e l'Ambionet (IT).
The project has been divided into the following tasks:
- Identification of existing cultivars and germplasms that may be adapted to specific regions of Europe.
- Determination of potential switchgrass dry matter production and N response under various European conditions.
- Collection of physiological data on switchgrass to explain biomass production and quality and for development of a pilot productivity model for switchgrass
- Identification of best seed establishment methods and subsequent winter survival under European conditions.
- Determination of suitability of switchgrass for various thermal conversion processes (pyrolysis, gasification and combustion).
- Evaluation of financial, economical and environmental aspects of switchgrass as an energy crop for Europe and comparison to other energy crops.
This project offers a very cost-effective evaluation of a very promising C4 ligno-cellulosic energy crop that has high yield potential and a low cost for establishment and which can easily be incorporated into current farming systems.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels biomass energy
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels renewable energy
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture industrial crops fodder
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
6708 WAGENINGEN
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.