Three agricultural economists affiliated with NDSU’s Bio-Energy and Products Innovation Center have landed two of eight SunGrant projects awarded in 2009. The two projects will receive $245,100 in new funding. More than 42 national proposals were submitted for consideration. The SunGrant program funds renewable energy research under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy.

David Lambert, principal investigator, and Larry Leistritz, co-principal investigator, developed “The Logistics of Herbaceous Crop Residue-Based Ethanol Production Under Uncertainty.” Because of the economic and environmental advantages expected from the emerging technologies based on cellulosic ethanol production, investor interest and federal mandate both suggest an increasing share of the nation's renewable energy needs will be met from biomass sources such as crop residues and other herbaceous and woody feedstock sources.

Lambert and Leistritz will develop a logistical model of a crop residue-based industry in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota to identify optimal strategies for harvest, storage, pretreatment, and location and scale of biorefineries. The model will include uncertainties surrounding harvest and transportation costs, feed values, prices of biofuels and other potential industrial products, as well as uncertainties surrounding the engineering aspects of the conversion processes. Model results will indicate not only optimal system design, but also provide information on the distribution of returns to the different participants in the system. The two-year project received $145,090 in funding.

Cole Gustafson’s proposal, “Prioritizing Corn Harvest and BioMass Collection Activities,” has received $100,010 to examine the emerging competition for time between regular corn harvest activities and collection of biomass such as corncobs and stoves for use in alternative energy production.

Corncobs are emerging as a preferred biomass source, but require additional field time during busy harvest periods for collection. Gustafson will develop a decision aide to examine the profitability of corn biomass collection given the number of field days available, weather uncertainty, relative prices of corn grain and biomass and different collection technologies.  Farmers in three corn producing regions of North Dakota will be asked to participate in the study.

For more information, go to www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/bioopportunities.