In Iowa, Iowa State University reported that a research team led by Iowa State University landscape ecologist Lisa Schulte Moore has spent the past six years studying how to efficiently turn harvested grass into lucrative renewable natural gas.
“We’re looking at existing markets where there is already a demand, use existing infrastructure to reduce costs of the energy transition and create wins in multiple categories. We want wins for farmers, wins for businesses, wins for municipalities and wins for society,” said Schulte Moore, professor of natural resource ecology and management and director of the Consortium for Cultivating Human And Naturally reGenerative Enterprises (C-CHANGE). “We can have great conversations about what could be, but unless it benefits everyone along these supply chains, it won’t happen.”
The university noted that a pair of recently published peer-reviewed articles by Schulte-Moore’s research group modeled the economic feasibility of grass-to-gas production in different settings and from varying perspectives.
“To replace natural gas with resources that revitalize sustainable agriculture, we have to be able to quantify how much energy we can produce and show it can be cost effective and environmentally friendly,” said associate professor of mechanical engineering Mark Mba-Wright, co-author of the studies.
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Tags: C-CHANGE, Iowa, Iowa State University, RNG
Category: Research
