**Plant Materials Used for Biofuel**

Biofuel is any fuel derived from a recently living organism, such as a
plant. Biomass produced from plants is processed into liquid fuel
(ethanol and biodiesel), burned to generate electricity, or chemically
converted to syn-gas. A variety of agricultural crops and residue such
as corn, corn stover and soybeans are harvested to be processed into
biofuels.

![](media/image3.jpeg){width="2.75in"
height="2.9480314960629923in"}Native warm season prairie grasses and
short rotational woody species have great potential to provide biofuels.
Switchgrass has many conservation uses, but its high yields and biomass
quality, seed availability of productive cultivars, and wide range of
adaptation make it a prime candidate for integration into farming
operations as a biofuel crop. Poplars, willows, sycamore and sweetgum
are examples of fast-growing trees and shrubs which can be planted in
production agriculture and harvested every 3 -10 years for biofuel
production.

The Plant Materials Program of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS) has been collecting, evaluating, selecting, and releasing
cultivars of switchgrass since the 1940's for soil conservation,
livestock forage and wildlife. These cultivars such as 'Alamo', 'Kanlow'
and 'Cave-in-Rock', which are products of the plant materials program,
are being utilized as biofuel crops in the Northern Great Plains and
southeastern United States. Yields in excess of 10 tons/acre are not
uncommon for this native warm season grass. 'Cave-in Rock' is being used
in combination with coal to generate electricity as part of the Chariton
Valley Biomass Project near Ottumwa, Iowa.

Additionally, several Plant Materials Centers cooperated with the U.S.
Department of Energy's Biomass Feed Stock Development Program by
conducting regional testing trials and management practices for biomass
production and evaluation.

**Cooperative Biomass Studies at**

**Plant Materials Centers**

Plant Materials Centers in Coffeeville, Mississippi; Booneville,
Arkansas; Knox City, Texas and Manhattan, Kansas served as regional
testing locations for multiple year studies comparing production and
persistence of commercially available switchgrass cultivars to new
selections developed by Oklahoma State University and Texas A&M
University.

Plant Materials Centers in Pullman, Washington, Aberdeen, Idaho and
Lockeford, California are working with university scientists and the
USDA Agricultural Research Service to evaluate previous and recently
released plants from their respective centers as future biofuel crops in
the western United States. The Big Flats Plant Materials Center,
Corning, NY in cooperation with the State University of New York,
Syracuse, tested hybrid poplar selections for growth and other biofuel
qualities as an energy source for the northeastern United States.

The East Texas Plant Materials Center and the Arthur Temple College of
Forestry and Agriculture at Stephen F. Austin State University,
Nacogdoches, Texas are evaluating the biofuel qualities of black locust,
green ash, sweetgum, sycamore, cottonwood and loblolly pine in a short
rotational woody cropping system. The Aberdeen (ID) PMC is evaluating
accessions of poplar for production potential.

![](media/image5.wmf){width="2.7429133858267716in"
height="2.0543307086614173in"}In an on-going effort to establish the
best management practice for maximizing yield and biomass quality of
'Alamo' switchgrass, the Jamie L. Whitten Plant Materials Center in
Coffeeville, Mississippi compared a one (early fall) and two harvest
(mid summer and early fall) system. Their study found a one harvest
system consistently produces higher yields than the two harvest system
(9.4 vs. 7.5 tons/acre) in northern Mississippi.

![](media/image6.jpeg){width="2.927165354330709in"
height="2.2098425196850395in"}

**Future Studies**

The Plant Materials Program and their cooperating partners will continue
to identify potentially new herbaceous and woody biofuel species that
can be integrated into typical farming operations. Management response
studies will be conducted to verify selections or improve production
guidelines on current and new biofuel crops.