Credit: Photo courtesy Patty Campbell/Argonne National Laboratory
In collaboration with the farming community of the Indian Creek Watershed in central Illinois, Argonne researchers are finding ways to simultaneously meet three objectives: maximize a farmer’s production, grow feedstock for bioenergy and protect the environment.
Planting bioenergy crops like willows or switchgrass in rows where commodity crops are having difficulty growing could both provide biomass feedstock and also limit the runoff of nitrogen fertilizer into waterways — all without hurting a farmer’s profits.