Environmental Sciences and Sustainable Engineering Centre (ESSENCE)

Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad&nbsp;(IIT Palakkad or IIT PKD) is a public autonomous&nbsp;engineering&nbsp;and&nbsp;research&nbsp;institute located in&nbsp;Palakkad,&nbsp;Kerala. It was&nbsp;one of the five new&nbsp;IITs&nbsp;proposed in the&nbsp;2014 Union budget of India. The campus was inaugurated on 3 August 2015. The institute has 94 faculty, 978 students, and 63 non-teaching staffs.

IT Palakkad currently offers four-year Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) and two years MS programmes in 8 different engineering disciplines including&nbsp;Computer Science, Electrical, Mechanical, Civil among others.

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IIT Palakkad

World University root node

ASA, CSSA and SSSA International Annual Meetings

A Process-Based Model for Global Simulations of Agave Spp. Biomass Potential

This chapter discusses the basis for ongoing work in global-scale pastureland yield gap and energy crop analyses, paired with landscape-scale process-based modeling and remote sensing analyses that use Brazil as a case study. It introduces the potential role of pasture intensification in sustainably meeting rising demands for food and bioenergy feedstock. Combining pastureland intensification with increased bioenergy production requires land use change as well as changes in agricultural management practices. This raises the possibility of negative impacts on soil carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, important metrics for agroecosystem sustainability. These concerns are highly relevant in Brazil, which is undergoing pastureland intensification alongside the expansion of sugarcane production to meet growing global demands for sugar and biofuels. The chapter also presents the basis for the research approach of the GSB Geospatial project, and a review of pathways to address key uncertainties.

Sugarcane Bioenergy for Sustainable Development: Expanding Production in Latin America and Africa

Integrating pasture intensification and bioenergy crop expansion

Increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations ([CO2]) and surface temperature are known to individually have effects on crop development and yield, but their interactive effects have not been adequately investigated under field conditions. We evaluated the impacts of elevated [CO2] with and without canopy warming as a function of development in soybean and maize using infrared heating arrays nested within free air CO2 enrichment plots over three growing seasons. Vegetative development accelerated in soybean with temperature plus elevated [CO2] resulting in higher node number. Reproductive development was delayed in soybean under elevated [CO2], but warming mitigated this delay. In maize, both vegetative and reproductive developments were accelerated by warming, whereas elevated [CO2] had no apparent effect on development. Treatment-induced changes in the leaf carbohydrates, dark respiration rate, morphological parameters, and environmental conditions accompanied the changes in plant development. We used two thermal models to investigate their ability to predict the observed development under warming and elevated [CO2]. Whereas the growing degree day model underestimated the thermal threshold to reach each developmental stage, the alternative process-based model used (β function) was able to predict crop development under climate change conditions. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Plant Cell and Environment

Canopy warming accelerates development in soybean and maize, offsetting the delay in soybean reproductive development by elevated CO2 concentrations

Ui.Adsabs.Harvard.Edu

A coupled modeling system for studying the impacts of growing biofuel crops in marginal lands on the food-energy-water nexus

AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts 2018, GC53F

Impact of climate change on biomass availability from perennial bioenergy crops grown on the US marginal land

Sugarcane has emerged as the second largest source of biofuel, primarily as ethanol produced in Brazil. Dual row planting using asymmetric spacing of rows can decrease damage to plants and soil structure from harvest equipment though potentially can cause some loss of productivity due to increased shading. Can we assess this loss, without experimental testing of the thousands of potential permutations of planting design and cultivar canopy form? Here we develop a computational framework which couples 3D canopy architectural information, a ray-tracing algorithm, and a steady-state C4 photosynthesis model to study this question. We demonstrate the utility of the model by comparing evenly spaced rows at 100 cm to alternating row spacing of 45 and 155 cm. Asymmetric planting caused a 9% decrease in predicted net canopy carbon uptake over the growing season for a major current cultivar. The loss was greater at lower leaf area indices, when leaves were more vertical and when rows were oriented east-west, suggesting agronomic approaches to minimize loss. This study demonstrates the utility of this computational framework, which could also be used to aid breeding by identifying ideotypes for different environments and objectives, and to assess impacts of environmental change. © 2017, The Author(s).

Fulltext

Bioenergy Research

Development of a Three-Dimensional Ray-Tracing Model of Sugarcane Canopy Photosynthesis and Its Application in Assessing Impacts of Varied Row Spacing

Reduction of CO 2 emissions will require a transition from fossil fuels to alternative energy sources. Expansion of Brazilian sugarcane ethanol provides one near-term scalable solution to reduce CO 2 emissions from the global transport sector. In contrast to corn ethanol, the Brazilian sugarcane ethanol system may offset 86% of CO 2 emissions compared to oil use, and emissions resulting from land-use change to sugarcane are paid back in just 2-8 years. But, it has been uncertain how much further expansion is possible given increasing demand for food and animal feed, climate change impacts and protection of natural ecosystems. We show that Brazilian sugarcane ethanol can provide the equivalent of 3.63-12.77 Mb d -1 of crude oil by 2045 under projected climate change while protecting forests under conservation and accounting for future land demand for food and animal feed production. The corresponding range of CO 2 offsets is 0.55-2.0 Gigatons yr -1. This would displace 3.8-13.7% of crude oil consumption and 1.5-5.6% of net CO 2 emission globally relative to data for 2014.

Nature Climate Change

Brazilian sugarcane ethanol as an expandable green alternative to crude oil use

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS AND SYSTEMS

(Table presented.). Summary: As a consequence of an increase in world population, food demand is expected to grow by up to 110% in the next 30–35 yr. The population of sub-Saharan Africa is projected to increase by &gt; 120%. In this region, cassava (Manihot esculenta) is the second most important source of calories and contributes c. 30% of the daily calorie requirements per person. Despite its importance, the average yield of cassava in Africa has not increased significantly since 1961. An evaluation of modern cultivars of cassava showed that the interception efficiency (ɛi) of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and the efficiency of conversion of that intercepted PAR (ɛc) are major opportunities for genetic improvement of the yield potential. This review examines what is known of the physiological processes underlying productivity in cassava and seeks to provide some strategies and directions toward yield improvement through genetic alterations to physiology to increase ɛi and ɛc. Possible physiological limitations, as well as environmental constraints, are discussed. © 2016 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2016 New Phytologist Trust