However, LAB possess several characteristics that render them among the most promising candidates for use in future biorefineries in converting plant-derived biomass either from dedicated crops or from municipal/industrial solid wastes into biofuels and high value-added products.
For this reason, complementary cultures to sugarcane are being studied, as sweet sorghum, which could be produced off season, and cellulosic ethanol, from cane bagasse or from dedicated crops as tropical forages.
Pump next takes us on a survey of the fuels that ought to be competing with oil for our transportation dollar -- because they all cost less than gasoline or diesel -- electric vehicles, natural gas fuels, or biofuels derived from agricultural or municipal wastes or dedicated crops.
Raw materials include wood residues, dedicated crops such as poplar or Miscanthus, agricultural residues and waste paper.
The scenarios focus on coarse categories of land use including food/fodder crops, so-called first-generation energy crops, dedicated energy crops and permanent grassland.
Elsayed et al. (2003) used LCA to create a set of energy and carbon balances for a range of energy products derived from biomass feedstocks including 'food' crops (oilseed rape, wheat, sugar beet), dedicated energy crops, and crop and forestry residues.
Such integration could be achieved by converting both productive and economically marginal agricultural lands, albeit in each case different energy crops are involved, including either intensive crops (i.e. first-generation energy crops) or dedicated energy crops (e.g. grass and woody perennial crops), which are often less intensive in management [67].
We therefore include scenarios with first-generation energy crops only (A1, B1; Fig. 2), spatio-temporal combinations of first-generation energy crops and dedicated energy crops (A2, B2; Fig. 2) and dedicated energy crops only (perennial crops, A3, B3, C1 3; Fig. 2).
crops + dedicated energy crops Opportunity for mitigating pressures on farmland biodiversity A3 Dedicated energy crops Opportunities for mitigating various impacts of agriculture and supporting biodiversity B1 1st-gen.
Including dedicated energy crops, perennial crops in particular, in intensive food-cropping systems could mitigate some of the pressures on farmland biodiversity by lowering input levels, lowering the speed of production cycles, increasing crop diversity, regenerating soils and providing continuous resources for ecosystem service providers [24, 50, 72, 73].
Lignocellulosic materials generally consist of a range of crop residues, dedicated energy crops, saw dust, forest residues and solid animal waste.
