DOE Landscape
Design Project

The U.S. Department of Energy selected ANTARES to lead a team of experts from industry, academia and several national laboratories to enable more stable and diverse future feedstock supplies (corn stover, switchgrass, and other warm season grasses) for three cellulosic biorefineries in Iowa and Kansas, while increasing both profitability and ecological benefits in those areas. The project will incorporate a broad range of conservation practices, develop and validate advanced landscape management tools, and collect data on key sustainability indicators and feedstock logistics performance. The project will involve landowners and multi-disciplinary stakeholders in the landscape design process, establish field research to quantify and improve sustainability metrics, and assess logistics systems needed to provide high-quality cellulosic feedstocks to conversion facilities for bioenergy.