Miscanthus as a potential bioenergy crop in East Asia

Abstract

Miscanthus is a perennial rhizomatous grass with C4 photosynthesis and native to East Asia. This grass has been considered as a weed in East Asia, and never been considered as a bioenergy crop until the end of the 20th century. Meanwhile, it has been studied as a potential bioenergy crop in Europe since the 1980s. Soaring energy consumption and heavy dependency of its energy production on imported petroleum have led to initiate finding alternative energy in East Asia. Miscanthus has high water and nutrient-use efficiency, and cold tolerance, high biomass yield potential up to 40 t DM ha−1 with long sustainable productivity up to more than 15 years after the first establishment, and high carbon sequestration capacity. In this regard, Miscanthus is one of the most ideal bioenergy crops in East Asia; potential areas where sufficient size of land is available include Mongolia, the far eastern part of Russia such as Primorski-Krai, Amur Oblast, and Khabarovsk-Krai, and northern parts of China such as Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Neimenggu. Although low temperature and rainfall may be limiting factors, it is expected that Miscanthus can be cultivated for commercial biomass production in this region, particularly Primorski-Krai. To facilitate Miscanthus biomass production and its commercial use for biofuel production in East Asia, it is necessary to introduce a new Miscanthus variety with cold and drought tolerance, and to develop a Miscanthus plantation technology and production management system.