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Science 8 December 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5805, pp. 1598 - 1600
DOI: 10.1126/science.1133306
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Reports

Carbon-Negative Biofuels from Low-Input High-Diversity Grassland Biomass

David Tilman,1* Jason Hill,1,2 Clarence Lehman1

Biofuels derived from low-input high-diversity (LIHD) mixtures of native grassland perennials can provide more usable energy, greater greenhouse gas reductions, and less agrichemical pollution per hectare than can corn grain ethanol or soybean biodiesel. High-diversity grasslands had increasingly higher bioenergy yields that were 238% greater than monoculture yields after a decade. LIHD biofuels are carbon negative because net ecosystem carbon dioxide sequestration (4.4 megagram hectare–1 year–1 of carbon dioxide in soil and roots) exceeds fossil carbon dioxide release during biofuel production (0.32 megagram hectare–1 year–1). Moreover, LIHD biofuels can be produced on agriculturally degraded lands and thus need to neither displace food production nor cause loss of biodiversity via habitat destruction.

1 Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
2 Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tilman{at}umn.edu

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E-Letters:

Read all E-Letters

The Experimental Low-Input High Diversity Biofuel System
Kenneth G. Cassman
Science Online, 19 Apr 2007 [Full text]
Tilman et al. Reply to Cassman
David Tilman, et al.
Science Online, 19 Apr 2007 [Full text]

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)