Empirical evidence for the potential climate benefits of decarbonizing light vehicle transport in the U.S. with bioenergy from purpose-grown biomass with and without BECCS

Climate mitigation scenarios limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 °C rely on decarbonizing vehicle transport with bioenergy production plus carbon capture and storage (BECCS), but climate impacts for producing different bioenergy feedstocks have not been directly compared experimentally nor for ethanol vs. electric light-duty vehicles. A field experiment at two Midwest U.S. sites on contrasting soils revealed that feedstock yields of seven potential bioenergy cropping systems varied substantially within sites but little between. Bioenergy produced per hectare reflected yields: miscanthus > poplar > switchgrass > native grasses ≈ maize stover (residue) > restored prairie ≈ early successional. Greenhouse gas emission intensities for ethanol vehicles ranged from 20 to -179 g CO2e MJ-1: maize stover >> miscanthus ≈ switchgrass ≈ native grasses ≈ poplar > early successional ≥ restored prairie; direct climate benefits ranged from ~80% (stover) – 290% (restored pra..., Data collected as described in materials and methods.
, See the readme file for a description of data in \"dataset_gelfand_es&t.xlsx\". The file \"calculations_gelfand_est_corrected_v2_12.15.2022.xlsx\" shows the assumptions, calculations, and extrapolations of these data and their location in the paper and supplemental information. This file contains the corrections described in https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c09013 published on 15 Dec 2022.