Harvested winter rye energy cover crop: multiple benefits for North Central US

Cover crops (CCs) can reduce nitrogen (N) loss to subsurface drainage and can be reimagined as bioenergy crops for renewable natural gas production and carbon (C) benefits (fossil fuel substitution and C storage). Little information is available on the large-scale adoption of winter rye for these purposes. To investigate the impacts in the North Central US, we used the Root Zone Water Quality Model to simulate corn-soybean rotations with and without winter rye across 40 sites. The simulations were interpolated across a five-state area (IA, IL, IN, MN, and OH) with counties in the Mississippi River basin, which consists of similar to 8 million ha with potential for rye CCs on artificially drained corn-soybean fields (more than 63 million ha total). Harvesting fertilized rye CCs before soybean planting in this area can reduce N loads to the Gulf of Mexico by 27% relative to no CCs, and provide 18 million Mg yr(-1) of biomass-equivalent to 0.21 EJ yr(-1) of biogas energy content or 3.5 times the 2022 US cellulosic biofuel production. Capturing the CO2 in biogas from digesting rye in the region and sequestering it in underground geologic reservoirs could mitigate 7.5 million Mg CO2 yr(-1). Nine clusters of counties (hotspots) were identified as an example of implementing rye as an energy CC on an industrial scale where 400 Gg yr(-1) of rye could be sourced within a 121 km radius. Hotspots consisted of roughly 20% of the region's area and could provide similar to 50% of both the N loss reduction and rye biomass. These results suggest that large-scale energy CC adoption would substantially contribute to the goals of reducing N loads to the Gulf of Mexico, increasing bioenergy production, and providing C benefits.

Automated summary

Large-scale adoption of winter rye as a cover crop can reduce nitrogen loss, carbon emissions, and provide renewable natural gas and carbon storage benefits. Based on simulations in the North Central US, harvesting fertilized winter rye before soybean planting can reduce nitrogen loads to the Gulf of Mexico by 27%, and provide 18 million Mg yr(-1) of biomass, equivalent to 0.21 EJ yr(-1) of biogas energy content or 3.5 times the 2022 US cellulosic biofuel production. Capturing CO2 from rye digestion and sequestering it in underground reservoirs could mitigate 7.5 million Mg CO2 yr(-1). Hotspots were identified where 400 Gg yr(-1) of rye could be sourced within a 121 km radius, contributing to nitrogen loss reduction and biomass production.