Power plant: Is Arundo Donax ("e-grass") the answer to our power problems? (FL)

[jpak]

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/11/Business/Power__plant__Is_Arun.shtml

Jim Wimberly spent more than 30 years working on food and energy projects from Arkansas to Central America to South Africa to Asia. But he figures all those gigs have simply been training for the project he's tackling now.

As vice president of agricultural operations for Biomass Investment Group Inc. of Gulf Breeze, Wimberly, 53, is one of the key players working to create the first commercial power plant in the world to turn a giant reed into electricity.

The power plant and acreage for the crop, scientific name Arundo donax but dubbed e-grass, will be somewhere in south Florida. Its total output, 130 kilowatts or enough to power about 83,000 homes, will be acquired by Progress Energy Florida, a subsidiary of North Carolina's Progress Energy. That means a 12-foot-tall reed - rather than oil, coal, natural gas or nuclear power - may someday be generating power for homes in the Tampa Bay area.

When - and if - that day comes, it will mark a major victory for Wimberly's boss, lawyer-turned-biomass proponent, Allen Sharpe. For nearly eight years, Sharpe, Biomass' chief executive, pitched his concept to utility companies all over the South, eliciting polite interest but no commitments.

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[tularetom]

1. If it is I could have been a billionaire

A creek runs along one side of our property for about 600 feet. For years this stuff grew wild on the creek bank. I made a couple of half assed attempts to get rid of it but it always came back. Finally the flood control authorities determined that it was infringing on the stream channel and causing upstream flooding which inundated a county road. They did a controlled burn which got rid of it but also killed a beautiful old oak tree growing on the bank. They planted willows to hold the bank together. The arundo periodically returns but they now get rid of it before it clogs the channel again.

Around here it is referred to as "bamboo" although it is actually a giant grass. I can see its potential as biomass because it grows so rapidly and requires very little care.

[XemaSab]

2. Arundo is a scourge

I can't believe they're actually planting that shit. :banghead:

edit: my hatred of arundo has stripped away my spelling faculties.

[Berry Cool]

3. Sounds like bad news for all the oboists and bassoonists in the world.

If all the Arundo donax gets used for electrical generation, there won't be any left for them to make reeds with. And nothing else really works.

[eppur_se_muova]

9. All the best reed cane comes from the Var region of France ...

I think we can count on the French to do the right thing. They are not ones to change anything too quickly. :)

[Dead_Parrot]

4. There's a thought...

...prompted by tularetom's post: I wonder if anyone has looked at Bamboo? That stuff grows like buggery when it gets going, and I think the sap is quite sweet, so it should provide a good base for fermentation (or the whole thing as a cellulose source, of course).

Edit: Of course they have. http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/754363-UNgHVW/webviewable/754363.pdf for anyone interested...

[Porcupine]

5. I think sugar cane IS a kind of bamboo. nt.

.

[Dead_Parrot]

7. Nearly...

Both are "true grasses" (Poaceae) but the sugar cane is one of the Panicoideae, like switchgrass: The bamboos are in a different subfamily, Bambusoideae (Arundo Donax is different again - Arundinoideae).

I think the spell-checker hates me. :D

[kestrel91316]

6. If they plant Arundo anywhere in FL they can kiss ALL NATIVE

ECOSYSTEMS GOODBYE! Arundo is an extremely invasive species. Once you plant it somewhere it spreads viciously and is virtually impossible to eradicate. And native species of birds, mammals, and even smaller creatures have NO USE FOR IT.

I guess if FL is going to be underwater soon, it might be ok. It probably drowns in salt water if kept immersed long enough.

[piedmont]

8. One of the top 10 noxious weeds on the planet

They floated the idea of growing this stuff in Alabama a couple of years ago but they couldn't find enough farmers willing to basically make their land incapable of growing anything else ever again.