Managing carbon in soils, feedstocks, and conversion pathways of tropical agricultural production systems for bioenergy

dc.contributor.advisorCrow, Susan E.
dc.contributor.authorWells, Jon Michael
dc.contributor.departmentNatural Resources and Environmental Management
dc.date.accessioned2024-07-02T23:41:05Z
dc.date.issued2020
dc.description.degreePh.D.
dc.embargo.liftdate2026-06-24
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/108309
dc.subjectBiogeochemistry
dc.subjectAgronomy
dc.subjectNatural resource management
dc.subjectbioenergy
dc.subjectbiofuels
dc.subjectsoil organic carbon
dc.subjecttropical agriculture
dc.titleManaging carbon in soils, feedstocks, and conversion pathways of tropical agricultural production systems for bioenergy
dc.typeThesis
dcterms.abstractAchieving statewide 100% renewable energy and net carbon storage by 2045 in Hawaii will require exploration of all possible sustainable energy sources. This dissertation focused on one important component of Hawaii’s potential clean energy portfolio—biofuels produced from tropical perennial C4 grasses. Accurate system-level analyses of these tropical agricultural production systems were lacking information in critical areas, which created barriers to their full consideration for inclusion in the portfolio. To address this issue, several key data sets were collected, including: 1) physicochemical predictors of soil organic carbon under long-term C4 grass production, 2) carbon and energy conversion efficiency of several bioenergy grasses through two conversion pathways, and 3) lignin structural controls on conversion to energy. Belowground, aggregate stability, surface charge, and mineral-root interactions protected soil carbon from losses despite intensive agriculture practices. Aboveground, highly variable amounts of energy were recoverable across species and varieties of C4 grasses, with lignin ratios showing strong prediction of energy variance. Taken together, the data provides important system constraints that must be maintained to keep agricultural production of these grasses for bioenergy carbon neutral, allowing the first data-driven development of carbon and energy neutral production systems.
dcterms.extent94 pages
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.publisherUniversity of Hawai'i at Manoa
dcterms.rightsAll UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
dcterms.typeText
local.identifier.alturihttp://dissertations.umi.com/hawii:10884

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