Jerome Dumortier has been studying carbon management, agricultural emissions, and bioenergy since he first began working on his Ph.D. in Economics. Now, he and his research are part of a large-scale nationwide report highlighting opportunities to remove large amounts of carbon dioxide in the United States.
“This is the culmination of the last 15 years of my research,” he says.
Researchers from all 50 states contributed to the Roads to Removal report from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, providing a pathway for the United States to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as part of a broader plan to become a net-zero greenhouse gas nation by 2050. Now, the O’Neill School is working with LLNL to host a Midwest Roads to Removal symposium based on the report and specifically focused on how Indiana and the Midwest can play an integral part in moving the country forward.
The free two-day event will bring together experts from around the nation, including EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe, Indiana State Representative Carey Hamilton, Hoosier farmer and former U.S. Ambassador Kip Tom, and other leaders in carbon sequestration and storage to discuss the opportunities and implications of carbon dioxide removal for the Midwest.
“There has always been a patchwork of people working on these topics,” he says. “Having all those people and their work together in one report is very exciting to me.”
In the report, Dumortier and his coauthors collectively outline different ways in which each region and state can help address carbon dioxide levels in the United States.
From forestry management in the Southeast to wind energy in the West, underground carbon storage across the country, and agricultural management in the Midwest, the report examines land-based methods to remove what authors predict to be at least 1 gigaton—that’s 1 billion tons— of carbon dioxide equivalents per year.
Dumortier’s area of expertise focuses on agriculture, bioenergy production, and electric vehicles.
“We now have more electric vehicles in the United States, which reduces the demand for ethanol, thus reducing the demand for corn,” Dumortier explains. “A lower demand for corn means there’s some land planting reallocation that could happen because corn isn’t as profitable anymore.”
Dumortier says that means farmers could shift to a new type of crop: switchgrass. He says it’s a more efficient crop than corn in terms of energy content per acre and could be used to generate the electricity needed to power the growing electric vehicle fleet.
“Switchgrass absorbs more carbon in the soil,” he says. “When switchgrass is harvested and processed, it also creates more energy than corn does. You get more energy per acre of switchgrass than you do per acre of corn.”
He says it also lasts longer so farmers wouldn’t have to replant every year—it’s there for the next 10 years.
But he admits there are barriers to making the switch to switchgrass.
“There’s a lot of hesitation because it has not traditionally been done,” he explains. “Plus, farmers are in a profit-maximizing enterprise. Right now, switchgrass comes with very high production costs, lower yields for the first couple of years, and there is really no market for it. That’s why we need to create a market and financial incentives to make it a viable option for farmers.”
That, he says, is where policy makers come in. Without effective policies and financial benefits, farmers won’t change their crops. He says current mandates to produce cellulosic ethanol from sources like switchgrass are not being enforced and the necessary infrastructure—such as bioenergy plants— to turn the crop into energy hasn’t been supported. At least not yet.
“There has to be a government policy there to make it happen,” he says. “Without some sort of support, the shift is unlikely to occur naturally.”
But growing and harvesting switchgrass is just one way in which Dumortier says Indiana can help reduce and remove CO2. Another is reviewing and adjusting crop management practices around the state.
“For example, using cover crops that increase the soil carbon levels and managing field tillage to reduce the carbon that tilling releases from the soil,” he adds.
Dumortier says Hoosier farmers also could collect agricultural residue left behind after a harvest—the stalks, leaves, and cobs. But he acknowledges, much like converting to switchgrass, there is also controversy in the impact of that practice.
“Agriculture residues return important and necessary nutrients into the soil,” he says. “There’s the concern that harvesting it may reduce the nutrient value of the soil, which can have big implications on future crops. That’s why there’s a lot of discussion about exactly how much of those leftovers you can actually harvest to convert into biofuels without hurting the soil.”
Authors hope the Roads to Removal report sets the stage for leaders in every corner of the nation to have those discussions about the options presented. To read the entire report and find state-by-state fact sheets, visit roads2removal.org.
