About The Project
The Chariton Valley Biomass Project was a cooperative effort between the Chariton Valley Resource Conservation and Development Inc., Alliant Energy, Prairie Lands Biomass LLC, and the U.S. Department of Energy. Based in Southern Iowa, the Project’s partners were seeking to demonstrate the technical and commercial feasibility of producing power from locally-grown and harvested renewable fuel resources: switchgrass and other native southern Iowa grasses. Switchgrass once grew abundantly in the soils of southern Iowa’s rolling hills simply because the two were well-suited. This natural companionship, along with the excellent burn qualities of switchgrass, created interest in the potential of growing the plant on marginal land as an alternative energy crop and a renewable fuel supply for power generation at Alliant Energy’s Ottumwa Generating Station in Chillicothe, IA. The project was managed by the Chariton Valley Resource Conservation and Development, Inc., based in Centerville, IA, and involves the efforts of project partners and team members from Iowa to Denmark. The project sought to develop a new business opportunity for Southern Iowa farmers, while creating local environmental benefits by improving air emissions, improving soil conditions on local farm lands, enhancing wildlife habitats, and reducing sediment and nutrient run-off from farm lands into local surface waters.
For more background information on the project, please see the following links: