Southeast Partnership for Advanced Renewables from Carinata (SPARC) is a regional project led by Dr. David Wright of the University of Florida, and funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Dr. Dewey Lee, Dr. Bill Anderson, and the H.SINTIMLAB are part of the Feedstock Development Workstream, which seeks to address the barriers to the production of carinata in the southeast United States.
More specifically, the H.SINTIMLAB is evaluating nitrogen sources and optimizing nitrogen application rate in carinata by considering the tradeoff between yield potential and greenhouse gas savings. Nitrogen sources have different greenhouse gas premium values assigned in the Renewable Energy Directives framework.
We are also evaluating the use of poultry litter as a soil amendment for carinata production to cut down on the rate of inorganic mineral fertilizers while replenishing the soil with important secondary and micronutrients that otherwise would have been mined from carinata production.
We appreciate the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture for funding, Nuseed® for providing various resources and being a major industry stakeholder in the project, as well as all SPARC project team members for their support. We appreciate all UGA staff, especially those at the research stations for the support in establishing the various trials.
