MISCOMAR publication in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews: Implementing miscanthus into farming systems: A review of agronomic practices, capital and labour demand

An international scientific journal, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, has published an paper about the MISCOMAR project study reviews current best practices and suitable land areas for miscanthus cultivation.

A team of authors from the Institute of Crop Science, University of Hohenheim, Germany identified the current best practices and suitable land areas for miscanthus cultivation. Biomass production costs and labour requirements were evaluated over the whole 20-year cultivation cycle of four utilisation pathways: combustion, animal bedding, and both conventional and organic biogas production.

The co-author of this publication is Dr. Marta Pogrzeba, who was the coordinator of the MISCOMAR project, whose leader was IETU.

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Implementing miscanthus into farming systems: A review of agronomic practices, capital and labour demand

Bastian Winkler, Anja Mangold, Moritz von Cossel, John Clifton-Brown, Marta Pogrzeba, Iris Lewandowski, Yasir Iqbal, Andreas Kiesel,

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 132, 2020, 110053, ISSN 1364-0321,

Abstract

Miscanthus is a promising bioeconomy crop with several biomass utilisation pathways. However, its current cultivation area in Europe is relatively low. This is most likely due to a lack of knowledge about the implementation of miscanthus into farming systems. This study reviews current best practices and suitable land areas for miscanthus cultivation. Biomass production costs and labour requirements were evaluated over the whole 20-year cultivation cycle of four utilisation pathways: combustion, animal bedding, and both conventional and organic biogas production. The assessment was performed for two field sizes (1 and 10 ha), two average annual yield levels (15 and 25 t dry matter ha^-1), and both green and brown harvest regimes.

The maximum attainable annual gross margins are 1657 € ha^-1 for combustion, 13,920 € ha^-1 for animal bedding, 2066 € ha^-1 for conventional and 2088 € ha^-1 for organic biogas production. The combustion pathway has the lowest labour demand (141.5 h ha^-1), and animal bedding the highest (317.6 h ha^-1) due to additional baling during harvest. Suitable cultivation areas include depleted soils, erosion-prone slopes, heavy clay soils and ecological focus areas such as riparian buffer zones and groundwater protection areas. On such sites, miscanthus would (i) improve soil and water quality, and (ii) enable viable agricultural land utilisation even on scattered patches and strips. Due to its low demands and perennial nature, miscanthus is suitable for sustainable intensification of industrial crop cultivation in a growing bioeconomy, benefiting soil and water quality, while providing large amounts of biomass for several utilisation pathways.

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