Sajeev Erangu Purath Mohankumar Master's Defense Ecological Sciences and Engineering Civil Engineering [cid:image001.jpg@01CCADB7.A607C810] November 30th, 10:30 AM, KRAN 661 Greenhouse gas emissions of cellulosic biofuels: A field to wheel analysis Abstract The production of biofuel feedstocks result in greenhouse gas fluxes to the atmosphere as a result of fertilizer application, land management practices and land use changes. While the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with feedstock conversion to liquid fuels through final combustion are fairly well understood, emissions from agricultural lands used to grow feedstocks for biofuel production continue to be poorly accounted for in life cycle assessment. There exists a lot of variability in the results reported to date due to dependence of trace gas fluxes on soil, weather, management practices and plant type. This study evaluates the soil biogeochemical model DAYCENT for 6 bioenergy cropping systems and provides a framework for calculating the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with biofuel production. This approach is applied to 2 counties in Indiana to explore the greenhouse gas fluxes associated with cellulosic feedstocks; corn stover, miscanthus and switchgrass. Results indicate the potential of cellulosic feedstocks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and also the need to account for land emissions to correctly simulate trace gas fluxes from biofuel cropping systems. Christal Musser Program Coordinator Ecological Sciences and Engineering Interdisciplinary Graduate Program Purdue University Hansen Room 114 201 S. University Street West Lafayette, IN 47907 765-494-2102 musser@purdue.edu<mailto:musser@purdue.edu> http://www.purdue.edu/dp/ese
