Weedy grass could free U.S. of foreign oil dependence says biologist

[jpak]

http://news.mongabay.com/2007/0216-grass.html

A weedy grass may hold the key to domestic energy security and mitigating emissions of greenhouse gasese, said a Stanford University plant biologist speaking Friday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Francisco.

Chris Somerville, director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Plant Biology, said Miscanthus could be used to produce ethanol at a lower economic and environmental cost than corn, currently the primary source of ethanol usd. in the United States. Miscanthus, a perennial grass native to subtropical and tropical regions of Africa and southern Asia, produces about twice as much biomass per acre without irrigation than other grasses and can be used to generate cellulosic ethanol, a type of ethanol which can be derived from virtually any plant matter. Somerville says that Miscanthus offers the best hope of meeting the ethanol targets set forth by President Bush in his January 23 State of the Union address.

The above figure from the U.S. Department of Energy explains plant cell wall structure (biomass) and some of the issues preventing their efficient conversion to ethanol. Click here for a full size image with explanation.

Last year the DOE announced the goal of making ethanol a practical and cost-competitive alternative by 2012 (at $1.07/gal) and displacing 30% (60 billion gallons) of gasoline by 2030. The United States now produces 4.5 billion gallons of (corn-grain) ethanol per year, a fraction of the 140 billion gallons of transportation fuel used annually.

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[shain from kane]

1. It cured me of alcoholism.

[sweetheart]

2. hemp has long been that as well

Like we need biologists to wake up periodically and remind us what we already know.

[XemaSab]

3. Weedy grass could take over native ecosystems says biologist

:eyes:

[Bear down under]

4. Which one?

There are twenty species of Miscanthus, and they vary in plant size by a factor of two. Which one is he talking about?

[ConcertSOS]

6. all

I think he meant all, but I am not sure

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. I thought they meant giving up fertiilzer and weed killer for picture perfect

suburban lawns. LOL