Multifunctional landscapes coupling low carbon feed and bioenergy production with restorative agriculture: Economic deployment potential of grass-based biorefineries

Grass-based biomass from grasslands can be used as feedstock in green biorefineries that produce a range of biobased products such as biomethane and protein feed.

Biomethane replaces natural gas imports and protein feed would reduce the reliance on soybean feed imports. In addition, adjustments made as part of crop rotation to increase areas under temporary grasslands can yield benefits such as carbon sequestration, increased soil productivity, reduced eutrophication and reduced need for pesticides.

In this paper, a flexible modeling framework is developed to analyze the deployment options for green biorefineries that use grass–clover to produce protein feed and feedstock for bioenergy. A case study involving 17 counties in Sweden showed that the deployment of green biorefinery systems could support biomethane and protein feed production corresponding to 5–60 and 13–154%, respectively, of biomethane and soybean feed imports to Sweden in 2020.

Insights:

Interview about the paper with the lead researcher, Sebnem Yilmaz Balaman of Chalmers University of Technology here

The scientific paper was published in the Journal Bio-FPR in November 2022, and is available in open access here

Members of IEA Bioenergy Task 45 (Sustainability & Climate Change) were involved in this research. Related work can be found here