Clemson University researcher wins grant to study energy crops’ impact on temperatures

In South Carolina, a researcher from Clemson University received a $147,744, two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to analyze how switchgrass fields and loblolly pine forests affect local temperatures through the exchange of water, energy, radiation and carbon with the atmosphere. He’ll also quantify below- and above-ground carbon fluxes in both loblolly pine and switchgrass plantations and assess the greenhouse gas emissions of the full biofuel production chain for each crop. This will provide a comparative picture of the potential of these feedstocks to reduce carbon emissions when generating electricity by co-firing in a coal power plant.