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Stochastic Modeling of Costs of Corn Stover Costs Delivered to an Intermediate Storage Facility

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Paper number  024190,  2002 ASAE Annual Meeting . (doi: 10.13031/2013.10526) @2002
Authors:   S. Sokhansanj, A. Turhollow, and R. Perlack
Keywords:   corn stover, corn residue, cost sensitivity, stover collection, stover yield, density

Corn stover is becoming a candidate feedstock to supplement corn grain as a feedstock for ethanol production. There are many differing options to collect and transport corn stover. Using a spreadsheet, we cost a baseline case that consists of shredding and raking in one operation, round baling [580 dry kg (1270 dry lb)], transporting from the field to an intermediate storage facility 8 km (5 miles) away using a bale wagon pulled by a tractor, and stacking the bales 5 high under a shed using a telescopic handler. Base case yield (after all operations) is 3.4 dry t/ha (1.5 dry ton/acre). Costs up to and including intermediate storage are $30/dry t ($27/dry ton). Neither a payment to the farmer for the stover nor the costs of transport to a conversion facility and grinding is included. Changes in individual parameters such as yield or bale density by themselves may vary costs by up to plus or minus $5/dry t ($5/dry ton). When a number of changes are combined, costs can range from a low of $23/dry t ($21/dry ton) to $45/dry t ($41/dry ton).

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