From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An energy crop is a plant domesticated for use in agriculture and is produced as a low cost and low maintenance harvest (generally, non food crops) to be used to make biofuels or directly exploited for its energy content.

Commercial energy crops in the UK are typically densely planted, high yielding woody crop species, such as Miscanthus, Salix (Willow) or Populus (Poplar) and their planting is supported by the Energy Crops Scheme (ECS).

Contents 1 Dendro energy 2 Biotechnology 3 Energy crops and anaerobic digestion 4 Biobutanol 5 Biodiesel 5.1 Yields of common crops associated with biodiesel production 5.2 Typical oil extraction from 100 kg. of oil seeds 6 Bioethanol 7 See also 8 External links

Dendro energy is energy generated by burning plants grown for the purpose. Energy crops are used for firing power plants, either alone or in combination with other fuels such as waste wood, oils, and coal (in a process known as co-firing). Alternatively they may be used for heat or combined heat and power (CHP) production.

Biotechnology can be used to improve the plants, so they can yield more to produce biofuel, their cultivation cost less, uses less water, they are fast-growing or grow quicker.

Anaerobic digesters are either fed with biodegradable waste materials or can be supplemented with energy crops. Energy crops can also be grown to generate biogas directly from high yield crops or to boost gas yields where feedstocks have a low energy content.

Energy crops for biobutanol are grasses.

Crop	kg oil/ha	litres oil/ha	lbs oil/acre	US gal/acre
maize (corn)	145	172	129	18
cashew nut	148	176	132	19
oats	183	217	163	23
lupine	195	232	175	25
kenaf	230	273	205	29
calendula	256	305	229	33
cotton	273	325	244	35
hemp	305	363	272	39
soybean	375	446	335	48
coffee	386	459	345	49
flax (linseed)	402	478	359	51
hazelnuts	405	482	362	51
euphorbia	440	524	393	56
pumpkin seed	449	534	401	57
coriander	450	536	402	57
mustard seed	481	572	430	61
camelina	490	583	438	62
sesame	585	696	522	74
safflower	655	779	585	83
rice	696	828	622	88
tung tree	790	940	705	100
sunflowers	800	952	714	102
cacao (cocoa)	863	1026	771	110
peanuts	890	1059	795	113
opium poppy	978	1163	873	124
rapeseed	1000	1190	893	127
olives	1019	1212	910	129
castor beans	1188	1413	1061	151
pecan nuts	1505	1791	1344	191
jojoba	1528	1818	1365	194
jatropha	1590	1892	1420	202
macadamia nuts	1887	2246	1685	240
brazil nuts	2010	2392	1795	255
avocado	2217	2638	1980	282
coconut	2260	2689	2018	287
chinese tallow	3950	4700	3500	500
oil palm	5000	5950	4465	635
algae	80000	95000	70000	10000

- Note: Chinese Tallow (Sapium sebiferum, or Tradica Sebifera) is also known as the "Popcorn Tree".
Source: Used with permission from the The Global Petroleum Club

Crop	Oil/100kg.
castor seed	50 kg
copra	62 kg
cotton seed	13 kg
groundnut kernel	42 kg
mustard	35 kg
palm kernel	36 kg
palm fruit	20 kg
rapeseed	37 kg
sesame	50 kg
soybean	14 kg
sunflower	32 kg

Jatropha is the plant for energy non-food crops, used to make biodiesel.

Energy non-food crops for cellulosic bioethanol is Switchgrass.

• Agricultural byproduct
• Anaerobic digestion
• Biogas
• Short rotation coppice
• Short rotation forestry
• Vegoil

• Center for New Crops & Plant Products, at Purdue University.
• http://www.treepower.org/
• http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/bioen96/graham2.html
• http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=36456
• http://crop.scijournals.org/
• http://www.nnfcc.co.uk/ National Non Food Crops Centre
• Ceresis the leading developer of dedicated energy crops, such as switch grass and miscanthus