Switchgrass Burned for Power

Doug Goben

Wayne County farmer Doug Goben believes switchgrass can mean another commodity crop for rural Iowa. He also sees switchgrass as a key tool in the fight against soil loss and for meeting conservation compliance.

As a board member of the Chariton Valley Resource Conservation and Development (CVRCD) Board, and Wayne County Soil and Water Commissioner, Doug Goben is part of a cooperative effort to demonstrate that locally grown switchgrass can be harvested and burned, with coal, to produce electricity. The Ottumwa Generating Station in Chillicothe will conclude a 2000-hour test burn this May. This test should help prove the feasibility of replacing up to 5% of out-of-state supplied coal with switchgrass, a perennial, warm season grass that can grow from 3 to 6 feet tall. 

The results will determine whether burning switchgrass in a power plant can be commercialized in Iowa.

This test is part of a ten-year project to create a commercially viable business which would sell up to 200,000 tons of switchgrass per year to the Ottumwa Generating Station. While commodity prices vary, if project partners could pay farmers $45 per ton for the switchgrass, the project would result in up to $9 million per year of combined income for local farmers.

According to Goben, one acre of marginal ground can produce two tons of harvested biomass per year. Providing 5 percent of the plant’s total energy needs will require 200,000 tons of biomass, harvested from 80,000 to 100,000 acres of switchgrass. 

Switchgrass, which is well suited to the soils of southeastern Iowa, once grew abundantly in the region’s rolling hills. When the Conservation Reserve Program was offered in the 1990s, many farmers took advantage of the opportunity to take their highly erodible land out of production and plant switchgrass. Besides drastically cutting soil erosion losses switchgrass has excellent burn qualities. This created interest in continuing to grow this plant on marginal ground as an alternative energy crop and a renewable fuel for power generation at the Chillicothe power plant. 

According to USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, there are 120,500 acres enrolled in CRP in Monroe, Appanoose, Wapello and Davis counties, which surround the Ottumwa Generating Station. With many of these acres already planted in switchgrass, people like Goben want to keep this ground in switchgrass once the CRP contracts start expiring next year. One way to do that is to develop a market for commercial switchgrass as a way to offset federal agricultural subsidy payments, he says. 

Switchgrass Baler

The current test burn is the third conducted at the Ottumwa Generating Station.  During the previous burns extensive data was collected on a wide range of power plant performance indicators. By using switchgrass for about two percent of the heat input, data shows there was a 4.5 percent reduction in acid rain causing sulfur dioxide emission and a 4 percent reduction in particulate emissions. Tests showed the power plant’s efficiency was retained.

A key component of this latest test burn is the examination of the long-term effects of burning switchgrass on the power plant’s boiler. Sections of the boiler subjected to the switchgrass/coal burn will be tested, analyzed and compared to the same parts that were installed during a coal-only burn. Dora Guffey, CVRCD Coordinator, says this testing phase will last until the end of 2006. 

“If everything goes well,” Guffey said. “It could mean going ahead with plans to make switchgrass a permanent energy component at the Ottumwa Generating Station. If that happens, we will have a new, alternative crop in switchgrass that will provide additional farm income while saving soil, cleaning water and providing habitat.”

That’s a day Doug Goben, and many others, is looking forward to.

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What is a RC&D?

The Chariton Valley Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) is one of 17 area councils in the state of Iowa that helps people protect and develop their area’s economy, environment and quality of life. With staffing and funding from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), local councils identify problems, establish goals, build strategies and implement plans. Although RC&D councils receive assistance from NRCS and many other partnering agencies and organizations, priorities and policies are always set by local people. Chariton Valley RC&D serves Lucas, Monroe, Wayne and Appanoose counties.

Contact:
Dick Tremain, Iowa NRCS
Phone: 515-323-2736

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