Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Future Prospects For Corn As A Biofuel Crop, Kenneth J. Moore, Douglas L. Karlen, Kendall R. Lamkey

Douglas L Karlen

Ethanol production from corn grain has increased signifi cantly during the past ten years in the US. This increase was driven by government policy guided by the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and embodied in the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit and other legislation created to promote a biofuels industry. As corn grain ethanol production approaches the target set out in the RFS, the industry is looking to develop capacity for producing advanced biofuels, primarily from agricultural wastes and dedicated energy crops. The residues remaining following corn harvest have been identifi ed as a voluminous and readily available feedstock for advanced …

Call For Abstracts - Resrb 2019, July 8-9, Wrocław, Poland, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

No abstract provided.

Lean Energy Analysis: Identifying, Discovering And Tracking Energy Savings Potential, J. Kelly Kissock, John Seryak

J. Kelly Kissock

Energy in manufacturing facilities is used for direct production of goods, space conditioning, and general facility support such as lighting. This paper presents a methodology, called lean energy analysis, LEA, for graphically and statistically analyzing plant energy use in terms of these major end uses.

The LEA methodology uses as few as 60 easily obtainable data points. Multivariable change-point models of electricity and natural gas use as functions of outdoor air temperature and production data are developed. The statistical models are used to subdivide plant energy use into facility, space-conditioning and production-related components.

These breakdowns suggest the savings potential from …

Improving Compressed Air Energy Efficiency In Automotive Plants: Practical Examples And Implementation, Nasr Alkadi, J. Kelly Kissock

J. Kelly Kissock

The automotive industry is the largest industry in the United States in terms of the dollar value of production [1]. U.S. automakers face tremendous pressure from foreign competitors, which have an increasing manufacturing presence in this country. The Big Three North American Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)-General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler-are reacting to declining sales figures and economic strain by working more efficiently and seeking out opportunities to reduce production costs without negatively affecting the production volume or the quality of the product. Successful, cost-effective investment and implementation of the energy efficiency technologies and practices meet the challenge of maintaining the …

Research Needs And Challenges In The Few System: Coupling Economic Models With Agronomic, Hydrologic, And Bioenergy Models For Sustainable Food, Energy, And Water Systems, Catherine L. Kling, Raymond W. Arritt, Gray Calhoun, David A. Keiser, John M. Antle, Jeffery G. Arnold, Miguel Carriquiry, Indrajeet Chaubey, Peter Christensen, Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, Philip Gassman, William Gutowski, Thomas W. Hertel, Gerritt Hoogenboom, Elena Irwin, Madhu Khanna, Pierre Mérel, Daniel J. Phaneuf, Andrew Plantinga, Stephen Polasky, Paul Preckel, Sergey Rabotyagov, Ivan Rudik, Silvia Secchi, Aaron Smith, Andrew Vanloocke, Calvin Wolter, Jinhua Zhao, Wendong Zhang

Andy VanLoocke

On October 12–13, a workshop funded by the National Science Foundation was held at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa with a goal of identifying research needs related to coupled economic and biophysical models within the FEW system. Approximately 80 people attended the workshop with about half representing the social sciences (primarily economics) and the rest from the physical and natural sciences. The focus and attendees were chosen so that findings would be particularly relevant to SBE research needs while taking into account the critical connectivity needed between social sciences and other disciplines. We have identified several major gaps in …

C.V. - Wojciech Budzianowski, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

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Renewable Energy And Sustainable Development (Resd) Group, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

No abstract provided.

Targeting Residential Energy Reduction For City Utilities Using Historical Electrical Utility Data And Readily Available Building Data, Kevin P. Hallinan, J. Kelly Kissock, Robert J. Brecha, Austin Mitchell

J. Kissock

Energy use data for the eight-year period 2003–2010 was analyzed for over 1200 single family residences in Village of Yellow Springs, Ohio. Electricity, natural gas, residential building, and weather databases are merged to permit determination of the energy intensity of each home in the village. The energy use intensity for each home is disaggregated into weather independent and weather dependent electric and natural gas use. This use is compared to typical baseline, cooling, and heating energy use for the region. From this comparison, priority homes are identified for energy reduction investment. Collective potential low cost energy reduction is estimated for …

Prioritizing Investment In Residential Energy Efficiency And Renewable Energy: A Case Study For The U.S. Midwest, Robert J. Brecha, Austin Mitchell, Kevin P. Hallinan, J. Kelly Kissock

J. Kissock

Residential building energy use is an important contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and in the United States represents about 20% of total energy consumption. A number of previous macro-scale studies of residential energy consumption and energy-efficiency improvements are mainly concerned with national or international aggregate potential savings. In this paper we look into the details of how a collection of specific homes in one region might reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, with particular attention given to some practical limits to what can be achieved by upgrading the existing residential building stock. Using a simple model of residential, single-family home …

Does A Rising Biofuels Tide Raise All Boats? A Study Of Cash Rent Determinants For Iowa Farmland Under Hay And Pasture, Xiaodong Du, David A. Hennessy, William M. Edwards

William Edwards

Iowa's farmland consists of over 16% hay crops and pastureland, a significant portion of which is under cash rental contracts. This study investigates the comparative relationships between cash rental rates for cropped land and non-cropped land, where the latter includes hay and pastureland. We find that higher crop prices resulting from biofuel demand induces land use conversion from non-cropped land to crop production and thus bids up non-cropped land rents. Compared with changes in cropped land cash rents, non-cropped farmland rents could increase by a higher percentage. Non-cropped land cash rental rates are largely determined by crop and feeder cattle …

Does A Rising Biofuels Tide Raise All Boats? A Study Of Cash Rent Determinants For Iowa Farmland Under Hay And Pasture, Xiaodong Du, David A. Hennessy, William M. Edwards

William Edwards

Iowa's farmland consists of over 16% hay crops and pastureland, a significant portion of which is under cash rental contracts. This study investigates the comparative relationships between cash rental rates for cropped land and non-cropped land, where the latter includes hay and pastureland. We find that higher crop prices resulting from biofuel demand induces land use conversion from non-cropped land to crop production and thus bids up non-cropped land rents. Compared with changes in cropped land cash rents, non-cropped farmland rents could increase by a higher percentage. Non-cropped land cash rental rates are largely determined by crop and feeder cattle …

Does A Rising Biofuels Tide Raise All Boats? A Study Of Cash Rent Determinants For Iowa Farmland Under Hay And Pasture, Xiaodong Du, David A. Hennessy, William M. Edwards

William Edwards

Iowa's farmland consists of over 16% hay crops and pastureland, a significant portion of which is under cash rental contracts. This study investigates the comparative relationships between cash rental rates for cropped land and non-cropped land, where the latter includes hay and pastureland. We find that higher crop prices resulting from biofuel demand induces land use conversion from non-cropped land to crop production and thus bids up non-cropped land rents. Compared with changes in cropped land cash rents, non-cropped farmland rents could increase by a higher percentage. Non-cropped land cash rental rates are largely determined by crop and feeder cattle …

Does A Rising Biofuels Tide Raise All Boats? A Study Of Cash Rent Determinants For Iowa Farmland Under Hay And Pasture, Xiaodong Du, David A. Hennessy, William M. Edwards

William Edwards

Iowa's farmland consists of over 16% hay crops and pastureland, a significant portion of which is under cash rental contracts. This study investigates the comparative relationships between cash rental rates for cropped land and non-cropped land, where the latter includes hay and pastureland. We find that higher crop prices resulting from biofuel demand induces land use conversion from non-cropped land to crop production and thus bids up non-cropped land rents. Compared with changes in cropped land cash rents, non-cropped farmland rents could increase by a higher percentage. Non-cropped land cash rental rates are largely determined by crop and feeder cattle …

Targeting Residential Energy Reduction For City Utilities Using Historical Electrical Utility Data And Readily Available Building Data, Kevin P. Hallinan, J. Kelly Kissock, Robert J. Brecha, Austin Mitchell

Kevin Hallinan

Energy use data for the eight-year period 2003–2010 was analyzed for over 1200 single family residences in Village of Yellow Springs, Ohio. Electricity, natural gas, residential building, and weather databases are merged to permit determination of the energy intensity of each home in the village. The energy use intensity for each home is disaggregated into weather independent and weather dependent electric and natural gas use. This use is compared to typical baseline, cooling, and heating energy use for the region. From this comparison, priority homes are identified for energy reduction investment. Collective potential low cost energy reduction is estimated for …

Prioritizing Investment In Residential Energy Efficiency And Renewable Energy: A Case Study For The U.S. Midwest, Robert J. Brecha, Austin Mitchell, Kevin P. Hallinan, J. Kelly Kissock

Kevin Hallinan

Residential building energy use is an important contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and in the United States represents about 20% of total energy consumption. A number of previous macro-scale studies of residential energy consumption and energy-efficiency improvements are mainly concerned with national or international aggregate potential savings. In this paper we look into the details of how a collection of specific homes in one region might reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, with particular attention given to some practical limits to what can be achieved by upgrading the existing residential building stock. Using a simple model of residential, single-family home …

Cost-Availability Curves For Hierarchical Implementation Of Residential Energy-Efficiency Measures, Roman Villoria-Siegert, Philip Brodrick, Kevin P. Hallinan, Robert J. Brecha

Kevin Hallinan

Historical residential electricity data and natural gas consumption data were collected for, respectively, 1,200 and 178 residences in a small town in the USA. These data were merged with local building and weather databases, and energy consumption models were developed for each residence, revealing substantial variation in heating and cooling intensity. After estimating approximate physical building characteristics, energy profiles for each residence were calculated, and savings from adoption of the most cost-effective energy-efficiency measures for each residence were estimated. Effectively, we wish to leverage commonly available data sets to infer characteristics of building envelopes and equipment, without the need for …

Procesy Cieplne I Aparaty (Lab), Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

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Inżynieria Chemiczna Lab., Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

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Engineering, Nutrient Removal, And Feedstock Conversion Evaluations Of Four Corn Stover Harvest Scenarios, Reed L. Hoskinson, Douglas L. Karlen, Stuart J. Birrell, Corey W. Radtke, W. W. Wilhelm

Douglas L Karlen

Crop residue has been identified as a near-term source of biomass for renewable fuel, heat, power, chemicals and other bio-materials. A prototype one-pass harvest system was used to collect residue samples from a corn (Zea mays L.) field near Ames, IA. Four harvest scenarios (low cut, high-cut top, high-cut bottom, and normal cut) were evaluated and are expressed as collected stover harvest indices (CSHI). High-cut top and high-cut bottom samples were obtained from the same plot in separate operations. Chemical composition, dilute acid pretreatment response, ethanol conversion yield and efficiency, and thermochemical conversion for each scenario were determined. Mean grain …

U.S. Billion-Ton Update: Biomass Supply For A Bioenergy And Bioproducts Industry, Robert D. Perlack, Laurence M. Eaton, Anthony F. Turhollow Jr., Matt H. Langholtz, Craig C. Brandt, Mark E. Downing, Robin L. Graham, Lynn L. Wright, Jacob M. Kavkewitz, Anna M. Shamey, Richard G. Nelson, Bryce J. Stokes, William L. Rooney, David J. Muth Jr., J. Richard Hess, Jared M. Abodeely, Chad Hellwinckel, Danial De La Torre Ugarte, Daniel C. Yoder, James P. Lyon, Timothy G. Rials, Timothy A. Volk, Thomas S. Buchholz, Lawrence P. Abrahamson, Robert P. Anex, Thomas B. Voigt, William Berguson, Don E. Riemenschneider, Douglas Karlen, Jane M. F. Johnson, Robert B. Mitchell, Kenneth P. Vogel, Edward P. Richard Jr., John Tatarko, Larry E. Wagner, Kenneth E. Skog, Patricia K. Lebow, Dennis P. Dykstra, Marilyn A. Buford, Patrick D. Miles, D. Andrew Scott, James H. Perdue, Robert B. Rummer, Jamie Barbour, John A. Stanturf, David B. Mckeever, Ronald S. Zalesny Jr., Edmund A. Gee, P. Daniel Cassidy, David Lightle

Douglas L Karlen

The Report, Biomass as Feedstock for a Bioenergy and Bioproducts Industry: The Technical Feasibility of a Billion-Ton Annual Supply (generally referred to as the Billion-Ton Study or 2005 BTS), was an estimate of “potential” biomass within the contiguous United States based on numerous assumptions about current and future inventory and production capacity, availability, and technology. In the 2005 BTS, a strategic analysis was undertaken to determine if U.S. agriculture and forest resources have the capability to potentially produce at least one billion dry tons of biomass annually, in a sustainable manner—enough to displace approximately 30% of the country’s present petroleum …

Development Of Sustainable Corn Stover Harvest Strategies For Cellulosic Ethanol Production, Stuart J. Birrell, Douglas L. Karlen, Adam Wirt

Douglas L Karlen

To prepare for a 2014 launch of commercial scale cellulosic ethanol production from corn/maize (Zea mays L.) stover, POET-DSM near Emmetsburg, IA has been working with farmers, researchers, and equipment dealers through “Project Liberty” on harvest, transportation, and storage logistics of corn stover for the past several years. Our objective was to evaluate seven stover harvest strategies within a 50-ha (125 acres) site on very deep, moderately well to poorly drained Mollisols, developed in calcareous glacial till. The treatments included the following: conventional grain harvest (no stover harvest), grain plus a second-pass rake and bale stover harvest, and single-pass …

Variable Renewable Energy In Modeling Climate Change Mitigation Scenarios, Falko Ueckerdt, Robert J. Brecha, Gunnar Luderer, Patrick Sullivan, Eva Schmid, Nico Bauer, Diana Böttger

Robert J. Brecha

This paper addresses the issue of how to account for short‐term temporal variability of renewable energy sources and power demand in long‐term climate change mitigation scenarios in energy‐economic models. An approach that captures in a stylized way the major challenges to the integration of variable renewable energy sources into power systems has been developed. As a first application this approach has been introduced to REMIND‐D, a hybrid energy‐economy model of Germany. An approximation of the residual load duration curve is implemented. The approximating function endogenously changes depending on the penetration and mix of variable renewable power. The approach can thus …

Establishing Building Recommissioning Priorities And Potential Energy Savings From Utility Energy Data, Kevin P. Hallinan, Philip Brodrick, Jessica Northridge, J. Kelly Kissock, Robert J. Brecha

Robert J. Brecha

An energy reduction program for commercial buildings is implemented for a SW Ohio natural gas utility. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that historical utility data for individual building customers, along with knowledge of pertinent building information (square footage, year built, number of floors, height of floors, wall construction type, and use type) available in county auditor databases, could be used to identify the best candidate buildings for recommissioning in terms of energy savings and simple payback. A study is completed for all natural gas customers of a utility in Montgomery and Clinton counties in Ohio. A total …

Rose: Roadmaps Towards Sustainable Energy Futures And Climate Protection: A Synthesis Of Results From The Rose Project, Elmar Kriegler, Ioanna Mouratiadou, Gunnar Luderer, Nico Bauer, Katherine Calvin, Enrica Decian, Robert J. Brecha, Wenying Chen, Aleh Cherp, Jae Edmonds, Kejun Jiang, Shonali Pachauri, Fabio Sferra, Massimo Tavoni, Ottmar Edenhofer

Robert J. Brecha

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Exploring energy demand and supply uncertainty: An exploration of uncertainty on drivers of energy demand and supply is indispensable for better understanding the prospects of long-tern climate stabilization. The RoSE study is the first of its kind to systematically explore the impact of economic growth, population and fossil fuel scarcity, in scenarios with and without climate policy, using a model ensemble. A feature of RoSE is the participation of five established integrated assessment modelling teams from three important regions in international climate policy negotiations: the EU, the USA and China. Economic growth: Neither slow nor rapid economic growth …

Renewable Energy In The Context Of Sustainable Development, Jayant Sathaye, Oswaldo Lucon, Atiq Rahman, John Christensen, Fatima Denton, Junichi Fujino, Garvin Heath, Monirul Mirza, Hugh Rudnick, August Schlaepfer, Andrey Shmakin, Gerhard Angerer, Christian Bauer, Morgan Bazilian, Robert J. Brecha, Peter Burgherr, Leon Clarke, Felix Creutzig, James Edmonds, Christian Hagelüken, Gerrit Hansen, Nathan Hultman, Michael Jakob, Susanne Kadner, Manfred Lenzen, Jordan Macknick, Eric Masanet, Yu Nagai, Anne Olhoff, Karen Olsen, Michael Pahle, Ari Rabl, Richard Richels, Joyashree Roy, Tormod Schei, Christoph Von Stechow, Jan Christoph Steckel, Ethan Warner, Tom Wilbanks, Yimin Zhang

Robert J. Brecha

Historically, economic development has been strongly correlated with increasing energy use and growth of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Renewable energy (RE) can help decouple that correlation, contributing to sustainable development (SD). In addition, RE offers the opportunity to improve access to modern energy services for the poorest members of society, which is crucial for the achievement of any single of the eight Millennium Development Goals. Theoretical concepts of SD can provide useful frameworks to assess the interactions between SD and RE. SD addresses concerns about relationships between human society and nature. Traditionally, SD has been framed in the three-pillar model—Economy, …

Ten Reasons To Take Peak Oil Seriously, Robert Brecha

Robert J. Brecha

Forty years ago, the results of modeling, as presented in The Limits to Growth, reinvigorated a discussion about exponentially growing consumption of natural resources, ranging from metals to fossil fuels to atmospheric capacity, and how such consumption could not continue far into the future. Fifteen years earlier, M. King Hubbert had made the projection that petroleum production in the continental United States would likely reach a maximum around 1970, followed by a world production maximum a few decades later. The debate about “peak oil," as it has come to be called, is accompanied by some of the same vociferous denials, …

Flowering Phenology Change And Climate Warming In Southwestern Ohio, Ryan Mcewan, Robert J. Brecha, Donald R. Geiger, Grace P. John

Robert J. Brecha

Global surface temperature has increased markedly over the last 100 years. This increase has a variety of implications for human societies, and for ecological systems. One of the most obvious ways ecosystems are affected by global climate change is through alteration of organisms’ developmental timing (phenology). We used annual botanical surveys that documented the first flowering for an array of species from 1976 to 2003 to examine the potential implications of climate change for plant development. The overall trend for these species was a progressively earlier flowering time. The two earliest flowering taxa (Galanthus and Crocus) also exhibited the strongest …

Noise Pollution? What's The Solution?: Understanding Traffic Noise Pollution In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Andrew F. Kapp, Joseph M. Passmore, Anika H. Schneider

Joseph M. Passmore

Noise pollution can be damaging to a community by impacting its atmosphere as well as the health of its residents, local quality of life, and local economy. Our study sought to gain insight into the level of noise pollution in Gettysburg, both in-town and on the Gettysburg College campus, and how noise pollution may be affecting the local residents and students. We selected 9 sampling sites, 6 in-town and 3 on the college campus, and measured the noise pollution in dBA with portable sound meters three days a week and three times a day over a three week period. Our …

Algal Biomass As A Binding Agent For The Densification Of Miscanthus, Sunil Thapa, Daniel B. Johnson, Peter Ping Liu, Thomas Canam

Thomas Canam

Purpose: Lignocellulosic biomass has been regarded as an important future energy source due to its excessive availability; however, the wide application of this material for many applications is restricted by the high costs associated with densification, transportation, thermo-chemical pretreatment and conversion. In order to increase the density of lignocellulosic biomass, it is typically compressed into pellets or briquettes. This frequently requires the addition of additives, which may negatively impact the economics of the process. Environmentally-friendly binding agents that can be obtained inexpensively are therefore desirable. This study examines the change in physicochemical properties of densified Miscanthus straw where algae were …

Inżynieria Chemiczna Ćw., Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

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