Abstract
Short rotation woody crops are being developed as a sustainable source of biomass for the production of bioenergy, biofuels, and bioproducts. With the potential increase in demand of biomass for energy in the future, there is a need to diversify and expand its source. In the present study, we evaluated the growth performance, biomass production, energy content, and potential ethanol yields of shrub willow hybrids and native willow accessions. Shrub willow hybrids cuttings were obtained from the State University of New York through its controlled breeding program while cuttings used for native willow accessions were collected naturally. At the end of one rotation, consisting of three growing seasons, we found that shrub willow hybrids outperformed native willow accession species (P = 0.0004), with an average survival rate of 80 and 39 %, respectively. Biomass production of shrub willow hybrids and native willow accessions ranged from 7.42 to 16.0 and from 0.69 to 1.83 Mg ha−1 oven dry weight, respectively. The chemical composition (mass fraction % on dry basis) of willow hybrids and native willow accessions generally contained 39 % cellulose, 19 % hemicellulose, 25 % lignin, 1.4 % ash content, 17,500–18,500 kJ kg wood−1, and 385 L Mg−1 of theoretical ethanol yield. Energy content and potential ethanol yields on a dry weight basis did not vary between shrub willow hybrids and native willow accessions; however, the amount of biomass produced per unit land area is known to influence potential ethanol yields. Thus, we suggest that shrub willow hybrids offer promising potential as an alternative source of biomass. The results of our study suggest that four of the shrub willow hybrids evaluated have a greater potential for use as biomass energy crops on marginal lands in central Minnesota than the native willow accessions; hence, there is a need to test their potential at a larger scale.
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Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and the USDA RREA program for the financial support provided for this study. The authors are also grateful to the Willow Breeding Program at SUNY and Cornell University, headed by Dr. Tim Volk (SUNY-ESF) and Larry Smart (Cornell University), for providing the planting materials and valuable inputs to the manuscript, and to Dr. Dean Current of the Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agricultural Management (CINRAM) at the University of Minnesota for the assistance during the establishment of the experiment. The authors are also grateful to Curt Kreklau, our farmer cooperator for the study, and to Yasha Hortman for helping in the data collection of the study. We thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
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Zamora, D.S., Apostol, K.G. & Wyatt, G.J. Biomass production and potential ethanol yields of shrub willow hybrids and native willow accessions after a single 3-year harvest cycle on marginal lands in central Minnesota, USA. Agroforest Syst 88, 593–606 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-014-9693-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10457-014-9693-6