As part of the assessment, Prairie Lands is evaluating the potential environmental, economic and agricultural benefits of switchgrass or other similar agricultural products. The firm is also identifying cost-effective and efficient methods to collect, aggregate, process and deliver the products to the power plant.
Prairie Lands’s assessment will build upon the successful switchgrass test burn demonstrations conducted during the Chariton Valley Biomass Project (CVBP) in 2006.
The CVBP, funded by Interstate Power and Light and the US Department of Energy, sought to investigate and demonstrate the technical feasibility, environmental benefits and potential business viability of growing switchgrass to replace a portion of the coal fuel supply at the Ottumwa generating station in Chillicothe, Iowa.
