California agriculture has significant potential for creating bioenergy, along with the state's forests and the solids from municipal waste. It is yet to be determined if converting these raw materials to fuel and power is practical, but a lot of people are working on it. Many of them are at the University of California, Davis. Since it is an ag school, it seems to be an appropriate environment for their brainstorming. A dozen of those researchers contributed to the theme article in the October-December issue of California Agriculture, the respected journal published by the university's division of agriculture and natural resources. It presents the potential and many of the challenges of developing energy from these sources on a sustainable basis. Between the three components of biomass (agriculture, forest and municipal waste), 80 billion tons of convertible material is produced every year. About half of agriculture's biomass production is animal manure, with field and seed residues producing about one fourth The authors believe the agricultural portion can be increased markedly if "purpose-grown" crops that are not in the current production mix are grown. They point out that some of those can be produced on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley and elsewhere where soils have been damaged by impaired drainage or other impediments. "California's current annual harvest of starch and sugar crops alone would be sufficient to produce more that 300 million gallons of ethanol," the article states. At the same time, the writers acknowledge that a complete shift of grain and sugar supplies to energy markets is not likely. But increased demand for electricity by hybrid and battery-powered vehicles might hasten the shift of the grain and sugar crops to biomass usage. And crops such as sugar cane that are only incidental in the California crop lineup today might become more prominent. While research to support wider conversion of plant materials (identified in the report as lignocellulosic biomass) is aggressively under way at several levels, the report's authors describe such use as precommercial. But the bottom line remains: "The sustainable use of biomass can reduce reliance on imported forms of energy, particularly petroleum, and provide other ecological and economic benefits." Three popular issues in California's early attempts to create agricultural biomass commercially must be part of the equation. First is the experience of Pacific Ethanol and others who attempted it by converting corn to ethanol. Circumstances indicated that venture might have been premature. Another major concern has been the use of a food (or feed) crops to produce ethanol. While that is still not resolved, the use of alternative crops such as switchgrass and other "pur pose-grown" crops promises to overcome, or at least alleviate that concern. The third worry has been the amount of energy required to advance a crop from field to fuel. Several projects are under way to show that the equation can favor fuel/energy production when the proper techniques are used, even if some of those techniques are not available yet. Bioenergy production in a big way might not be right around the corner, but farmers, agricultural leaders and researchers can see it in the distance. And they think it is gathering speed.

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