Abstract:
Cellulosic biofuel produced from dedicated bioenergy crops such as perennial grasses presents multiple environmental benefits (from reduced carbon intensity to more diversified agricultural landscape) and attracts much attention worldwide. However, the recent development of cellulosic biofuel has not reached the high expectation embedded in the renewable fuel standard (RFS). Accelerating cellulosic biofuel production requires efforts from multiple stakeholders, e.g., farmers/producers, biorefineries, local communities, government and non-government organizations, and consumers, whose decisions are heavily affected by various natural resource availabilities (e.g., land and water). Disentangling such a complex problem requires a multi-disciplinary approach and a systems view.
Following such understandings, here I show recent and on-going works that address the key elements (land and water availabilities and key stakeholder behaviors and interactions) of cellulosic biofuel development and their integration. The marginal land availability for cellulosic feedstock production is identified through a machine learning approach that addresses both biophysical and socio-economic factors. The water resources constraint on cellulosic biofuel development is identified through a compilation of most up-to-date data for water resources availability, feedstock availability, and cellulosic biofuel water-use. The key stakeholder behaviors and interactions are identified through a survey targeting Midwestern farmers and a focus group that includes farmers, bio-industry, and government and non-government organizations. Understandings from the above studies are integrated into an agent-based model (ABM) that simulates the complex interactions of multiple stakeholders in a cellulosic-based bio-economy under various resource constraints. The ABM could be used to identify the key drivers and barriers for the development of cellulosic biofuel, as well as to identify possible policy options and technology innovations for the emergence of cellulosic-based bio-economy.
Biography:
Pan Yang is a postdoc research associate at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his Ph.D. from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2018. He is interested in applying agent-based modeling and advanced data analytic tools to address bioenergy development and river basin management problems.
