2026-09-24T14:37:02Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/108727 2023-07-11 col_2142_5131 col_2142_14770 com_2142_5130 com_2142_3518 com_2142_234

DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #15708 on 2020-10-02 at 15:52:13 Made available in DSpace on 2020-10-07T22:50:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 LEIBENSPERGER-THESIS-2020.pdf: 4153496 bytes, checksum: 398fde2bc0b7df5f29a9c4dbc9689427 (MD5) LICENSE.txt: 4217 bytes, checksum: 62bb67565240220387e4fd8eebe5acef (MD5) Previous issue date: 2020-07-23 Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 116356 Lift date: 2022-10-07T22:50:13Z Reason: Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system Author requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD system Cai, Ximing Ellison, Brenna Leibensperger, Carrie Jill 2020-10-07T22:50:07Z 2020-10-07T22:50:07Z 2022-10-07T22:50:13Z 2020-07-23 2020-08 While understanding individual stakeholders’ perspectives on the adoption and conversion to a biofuel-based landscape has been the subject of many previous studies, there has been relatively little attention given to understanding the many stakeholders involved in biofuel development, and how the interaction between these stakeholders could help influence the widespread adoption of biofuel production. This thesis analyzes the key stakeholder interactions involved in biofuel development utilizing various data sources including survey results and empirical and theoretical analyses. We review a number of surveys, research papers, and literature reviews on different aspects of biofuel development such as land use choices, biorefinery and transportation, infrastructure development, consumer priorities, environment impacts, etc. Following that, we apply a stakeholder synergy approach that synthesizes typical responses of stakeholders, such as producers, consumers, biorefineries, rural communities, and the government and how these responses influence the decisions of multiple stakeholders and the overall system performance. Based on the findings of inadequate stakeholder synergy, we conduct a new survey among farmers in the Midwestern US that incorporates additional aspects on farmer relationships with other key stakeholders. Following that, this thesis applies logistical regression analysis of survey results to determine the correlation between farmer characteristics and preferences, as well as their willingness to adopt bioenergy crops in practice. We find that farmers are still largely unfamiliar with perennial grasses as a form of bioenergy, and therefore, communication through preferred channels is crucial to disseminate valuable information on the benefits of bioenergy crops. Additionally, we find that higher levels of perceived community support of energy crops are linked to higher levels of willingness to grow perennial grasses like switchgrass, miscanthus, and sorghum. These findings will help spur policy developments to generate synergy between stakeholders for biofuel development. Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2022-08-01 The student, Carrie Leibensperger, accepted the attached license on 2020-07-21 at 11:16. The student, Carrie Leibensperger, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2020-07-21 at 11:36. This Thesis was approved for publication on 2020-07-23 at 09:22. Limited application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108727 en Copyright 2020 Carrie Jill Leibensperger bioenergy, stakeholder synergy, survey Farmers' attitudes and barriers towards the production of cellulosic bioenergy crops in the Midwestern U.S. text Thesis Civil & Environmental Eng Civil Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Thesis M.S.