Energy Sorghum Production under Arid and Semi-Arid Environments of Texas

Juan Enciso,Samuel D Zapata,Jose C Chavez,Girisha Ganjegunte

doi:10.3390/w11071344

Juan Enciso, Samuel D Zapata + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/w11071344

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Abstract

Water availability and supply are critical factors in the production of bioenergy. Dry biomass productivity and water use efficiency (WUE) of two biomass sorghum cultivars (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) were studied in two different climatic locations during 2014 and 2015. The objective of this field study was to evaluate the dry biomass productivity and water use efficiency of two energy sorghum cultivars grown in two different climatic environments: one at Pecos located in the Chihuahuan Desert and a second one located at Weslaco in the Lower Rio Grande bordering Mexico and with a semiarid environment. There were significant differences between locations in dry biomass and WUE. Dry biomass productivity ranged from 22.4 to 31.9 Mg ha−1 in Weslaco, while in Pecos it ranged from 7.4 to 17.6 Mg ha−1. Even though it was possible to produce energy sorghum biomass in an arid environment with saline-sodic soils and saline irrigation, the energy sorghum dry biomass yield was reduced more than 50% in the arid environment compared to production in a semiarid environment with good soil and water quality, and it required approximately twice as much water. Harsh production conditions combined with low energy prices resulted in negative net returns for all treatments. However, a moderate increase in ethanol price could make the semiarid cropland of Texas an economically feasible feedstock production location.

Highlights

Every year a significant amount of surface of crop lands remain idle because of low return margins, high water pumping costs, and limited and saline water supplies
These compared to net returns of −1103 USD ha−1 and −1156 USD ha−1 for the Blade ES 5140 and Blade ES 5200 cultivars in the semiarid environment of Weslaco, respectively
They obtained productivities that ranged from 26.57 to 28.05 Mg ha−1, which is similar to the ones observed by Rocateli and Raper [19], who reported dry biomass yields of 26.0 to 31.6 Mg ha−1 in a study conducted in the southeastern US, and the dry biomass reported by Palumbo and Vonella [20], who reported 20.9 to 26.4 Mg ha−1 in a Mediterranean environment

Summary

Introduction

Every year a significant amount of surface of crop lands remain idle because of low return margins, high water pumping costs, and limited and saline water supplies. There has been a great interest in the use of agricultural crops to produce biofuel. An important challenge to grow bioenergy crops is the water availability, which is one of the critical factors to produce biofuels or any agricultural crops. In the past several years some authors have suggested to produce biofuel using marginal water (saline water) and marginal lands to increase its sustainability, avoid competition with food crops, or even to produce these biofuels in arid environments. Most of the arid environments are affected with saline and sodic soils, which represent 23% and 37% of the cultivated lands, respectively. Main causes of soils with high salinity are the high temperatures, which tend to increase evaporation demand and

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