« Come One, Come All To The Energy Party! | Home | Ethanol Plant To Mean Millions To Local Economy »
13-Foot Grass Next Hope For Ethanol Production?
By Mr Ethanol | July 31, 2008
CNET News:
A perennial grass that grows as tall as 13 feet, requires little to no fertilizer, and can be stored away in bales almost indefinitely could be the next hope for efficient ethanol production.
At least that’s the thinking of researchers from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who have been field testing a sterile grass known as Miscanthus giganteus, a distant cousin of switchgrass. In a report released Wednesday, the researchers said that the biofuel crop proved in field tests to be significantly more productive than other crops like corn in producing biomass for ethanol–an alternative to gas.
“By using Miscanthus…we can produce ethanol using a lot less land than we’re using at present doing this with corn,” crop sciences professor Steven Long, who led the study, said during in a presentation of the research. His work will also appear in this month’s journal Global Change Biology.
The U.S. government has a goal of producing enough ethanol to offset one fifth of gasoline use in the country, but by using corn or switchgrass as ethanol feedstock, it would take about 25 percent of U.S. cropland out of food production, according to the researchers. In comparison, to produce the same amount of ethanol with Miscanthus, it would take 9.3 percent of the acreage for agriculture, they said. In the U.K., the grass is commercially used for energy production. Continue reading.
Topics: Ethanol, Science, Trends |
Related Posts
- Turning Waste Material Into Ethanol
- Could Switchgrass In Guymon Be Used In Ethanol?
- Home Ethanol Production Not Trivial
- Ethanol Byproduct Has High Energy, Fiber
- Many Hope Plant Will Bring New Life To Ethanol Industry
- Students Launch Ethanol Blog For Community
- Japan Eyes Affordable Cellulosic Ethanol Technology
- Biofuels: A Danger For Latin America
- Where Ethanol Meets Opportunity
- Fuel For Thought: Students Look For Alternative Power
New Way Of Making Easy Money Online