Life Cycle Costs and Life Cycle Assessment for the Harvesting, Conversion, and the Use of Switchgrass to Produce Electricity
Table 4
The estimated yearly production costs per hectare and GHG [30–34].
Estimated yearly production costs
Expected yield per ha
9 tons
Weight of large square bale
950 lbs
431.82 kg
Bales per ha
20.84
Pre-harvest machinery operations custom charges
$/ha
gal of diesel/ha
diesel cost/ha
CO2
N2O
CH4
Estimate CO2 equivalent/ha
Bulk fertilizer spreader
8.28
0.49 (1.85 L/ha)
1.85
5.30
0.0022
0.00029
5.978
Liquid N application and sprayer
17.42
1.48 (5.60 L/ha)
5.56
15.90
0.0065
0.00087
17.93
Total
25.70
1.97 (7.46 L/ha)
7.41
21.20
0.0087
0.00116
23.91
Operating Exp. Price/unit Units
Price $/unit
Unit/ha
$/ha
Fertilizer*
N
$0.31/lb ($0.68/kg)
247.11 lb (112.09 kg)
76.60
4.72
1.12
1486.00
P
$0.37/lb ($0.81/kg)
4.79 lb (2.17 kg)
1.77
K
$0.23/lb ($0.51/kg)
56.34 lb (25.56 kg)
12.96
Herbicides**
79.8
Pursuit +
$53/gal ($14.00/L)
7.41 oz (0.22 L)
3.06
MSO
$1.75/pt ($3.70/L)
79.07 oz (2.34 L)
8.65
2,4D
$16/gal ($4.23/L)
3.71 pts (1.76 L)
7.41
Total operation cost
Harvest machinery operations, custom charges
Cost without fuel ($/ha)
gal of diesel/ha
diesel cost/ha
Mow/conditioning
36.37
2.792 (10.57 L/ha)
10.47
29.95
0.012
0.0016
33.76
Rake
13.81
0.766 (2.90 L/ha)
2.87
8.216
0.003
0.0004
9.27
Baling: large square
45.22
2.644 (10.01 L/ha)
9.92
28.36
0.012
0.0015
31.98
Staging
49.42
2.471 (9.35 L/ha)
9.27
26.50
0.011
0.0014
29.89
Total
144.83
8.67 (32.82 L/ha)
32.53
114.2
4.764
1.1294
1694.63
Yearly production costs per ha
320.92 $/ha
Prorated establishment cost
72.99
Prorated reseeding cost
32.91
Total production costs
426.82
Production costs per ton
47.42
*The application of nitrogen fertilizer leads to the formation of nitrous oxide emissions from the soil which leads to emission of GHG.
**The emission of GHG from application of herbicide on a field.
