Feedstock Cost and Profitability Calculator
(Bioenergy Science Institute) The Feedstock Cost and Profitability (FCAP) Calculator provides an estimate of the breakeven price needed to cover the costs of producing biomass from alternative feedstocks. These include crop residues from corn and energy crops like miscanthus, switchgrass, mixed grasses and hybrid poplar. The breakeven price includes the cost of two alternative types of land that could be used to produce the energy crops, marginal land and cropland. Specifically, this calculator computes the minimum price per ton of biomass crop that would be needed to cover all the costs of producing the biomass. In the case of energy crops grown on cropland, this includes the foregone income by converting cropland to energy crops, while in the case of energy crops grown on marginal land it includes the county soil rental rate for the Conservation Reserve Program in that county as an indicator of the cost of land.
To use the FCAP calculator, select your state and county, current crop on the land you plan to convert to an energy crop, and the type of biomass crop you plan to grow. Navigate through each of the tabs in the menu bar above to see the default assumptions for your county and view results. The breakeven costs of energy crops can be estimated under two alternative scenarios. The low cost scenario assumes relative ease of establishing the crop, low nutrient requirements, low costs of harvesting and baling, and lower harvest losses as compared to the high cost scenario.
This calculator is based on research conducted by Prof. Madhu Khanna and Dr. Haixiao Huang at the Energy Biosciences Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The web interface has been developed by Centrec Consulting. READ MORE
