Imperial College London
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ProfessorJemWoods

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Centre for Environmental Policy

Professor of Sustainable Development
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 9328jeremy.woods Website

 
 
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Location

 

1.02Weeks BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Mason:2015:10.1039/C5EE00242G,
author = {Mason, PM and Glover, K and Smith, JAC and Willis, KJ and Woods, J and Thompson, IP},
doi = {10.1039/C5EE00242G},
journal = {Energy & Environmental Science},
pages = {2320--2329},
title = {The potential of CAM crops as a globally significant bioenergy resource: moving from ‘fuel or food’ to ‘fuel and more food'},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C5EE00242G},
volume = {8},
year = {2015}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Bioenergy is widely seen as being in competition with food for land resources. This note examines thepotential of plants that use the mode of photosynthesis known as crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) togenerate globally significant quantities of renewable electricity without displacing productive agriculture andperhaps even increasing food supply. CAM plants require of the order of 10-fold less water per unit of drybiomass produced than do common C3 and C4 crops, and because of their succulence are endowed withsubstantial water-storage capacities that helps to buffer intermittent water availability. This allows them tothrive in areas where traditional agriculture struggles, either because of low rainfall, or because the seasonalityor unpredictability of rainfall is too great to allow profitable arable farming. Although as a group these plantsare understudied, sufficient data are available to support estimates of the contribution they might make toglobal electricity supply if used as feedstock for anaerobic digestion. Two CAM species are examined here aspotential bioenergy crops: Opuntia ficus-indica and Euphorbia tirucalli. Both show the high degree of droughttolerance typical of CAM plants and produce promising yields with low rainfall. Even CAM plants in semi-aridareas may have opportunity costs in terms of lost agricultural potential, but an alternative approach tobioenergy may allow the food value of land to be increased whilst using the land for energy. Global powergeneration from gas is around 5 PW h per year. The data suggests that 5 PW h of electricity per year could begenerated from CAM plants cultivated on between 100 and 380 million hectares of semi-arid land, equivalentto between 4% and 15% of the potential resource
AU  - Mason,PM
AU  - Glover,K
AU  - Smith,JAC
AU  - Willis,KJ
AU  - Woods,J
AU  - Thompson,IP
DO  - 10.1039/C5EE00242G
EP  - 2329
PY  - 2015///
SN  - 1754-5706
SP  - 2320
TI  - The potential of CAM crops as a globally significant bioenergy resource: moving from ‘fuel or food’ to ‘fuel and more food'
T2  - Energy & Environmental Science
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/C5EE00242G
UR  - https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2015/EE/C5EE00242G#!divAbstract
VL  - 8
ER  -
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