TY - JOUR
T1 - Energy and carbon accounting to compare bioenergy crops
AU - Borak, Brian
AU - Ort, Donald R.
AU - Burbaum, Jonathan J.
PY - 2013/6
Y1 - 2013/6
N2 - To compare the utility of current and future biofuels and biofuel feedstocks in an objective manner can be extremely challenging. This challenge exists because agricultural data are inherently variable, experimental techniques are crop-dependent, and the literatures usually report relative, rather than absolute, values. Here, we discuss the 'PETRO approach', a systematic approach to evaluate new crops. This approach accounts for not only the capture of solar energy but also the capture of atmospheric carbon (as CO2) to generate a final carbon-based liquid fuel product. The energy yield, per unit area, of biofuel crops grown in different climate zones can thus be benchmarked and quantitatively compared in terms of both carbon gain and solar energy conversion efficiency.
AB - To compare the utility of current and future biofuels and biofuel feedstocks in an objective manner can be extremely challenging. This challenge exists because agricultural data are inherently variable, experimental techniques are crop-dependent, and the literatures usually report relative, rather than absolute, values. Here, we discuss the 'PETRO approach', a systematic approach to evaluate new crops. This approach accounts for not only the capture of solar energy but also the capture of atmospheric carbon (as CO2) to generate a final carbon-based liquid fuel product. The energy yield, per unit area, of biofuel crops grown in different climate zones can thus be benchmarked and quantitatively compared in terms of both carbon gain and solar energy conversion efficiency.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.copbio.2013.02.018
DO - 10.1016/j.copbio.2013.02.018
M3 - Review article
C2 - 23518005
AN - SCOPUS:84878639264
SN - 0958-1669
VL - 24
SP - 369
EP - 375
JO - Current Opinion in Biotechnology
JF - Current Opinion in Biotechnology
IS - 3
ER -