decision to be free of fossil fuels by 2050, which is quite a challenge. A Commission on Climate Change Policy has analysed the situation and concluded that it’s possible, with biomass playing a key role in fulfilling that goal. Even though wind will be the major energy source, biomass will be important to supplement it because it’s well suited for storage, whereas energy from wind and solar are more volatile. Probably one third of total energy could be expected to come from biomass.” These projections do depend on a
number of factors, including technical development, sourcing national resources and prevailing market conditions. But Jorgensen sees no reason why Denmark can’t fulfil its ambitions, and is quick to stress the importance of rapid development of productivity in biomass crops in a country that has over sixty percent
Above: Measurements of photosynthesis in miscanthus genotypes in search for better growth at low temperatures
agricultural land. “Our goal was to look at the current systems of agricultural production and see if we could double productivity in those systems in a sustainable way, reducing nutrient losses and greenhouse gas emissions at a low cost. Cost of production is important because the system still needs to be economically competitive, which isn’t easy
when producing
biomass for energy.” After laying out their
goals, Jorgensen and his team conducted a number of long term experiments on willow, poplar, and miscanthus to improve knowledge on their long term yields and prospects. They had previously found a distinct lack of long- term international studies into these types of crops, so endeavoured to create a reliable data bank that would detail how these materials would develop over a sustained period of time. As well as looking at long-term yields, and
Jorgensen his team carried
these experiments, they also studied the effects of different fertilisers and strategies with a focus on cost of production. “Our system is very robust to different
fertilisers
“Denmark has made the
political decision to be free of fossil fuels by
2050, which is quite a
challenge” nutrient and
machines so we are quite sure that we will see very low
leaching
even though fertiliser strategies may vary,” says Jorgensen. In cooperation with the
University of Illinois, the researchers have been going back to basics and analysing the photosynthetic efficiency of crops. They have screened a selection of around 900 genotypes in order to improve on the productivity of those currently used around the world. As a result, an
interesting side project has arisen, as Dr Jorgensen explains: “We realised that
if out
investigations into how they could reduce the loss of water-soluble nutrients from the soil, a phenomenon commonly known as nutrient leaching. During the course of
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we were really going to boost productivity from agricultural land and produce food products, you have to take into account what is happening globally. If you take land that is being used for food production and produce biomass crops on it, the likelihood is that somewhere else on the globe nature areas and forests are going to be cultivated for production of food. In
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