Science Magazine article on the impact of Bioenergy Plantations

Earlier this month, Science Magazine published an article covering the development of a EPSCoR Track 2 grant project that the University of Wyoming is working on. UW researchers are collaborating with researchers from the University of Montana and the University of South Dakota to explore the impact of BECCS, (Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage) on the upper Missouri River Basin. This region includes Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas.

Bioenergy is classified as crops that are grown for fuel purposes, such as corn used in ethanol.
Carbon capture and storage is a technology that takes carbon that is released into the atmosphere by power plants and compresses it into a liquid form. Once in this form it can be stored underground miles below the surface.

Bioenergy plantations and carbon capture may be a viable solution to removing large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, but implementing the system would require a large amount of land. The practice has not been studied on a large scale, and this study hopes to look at how BECCS may effect food production, water use, and biodiversity in the region.

To learn more, the article can be found here.