Re: Grass Makes Better Ethanol than Corn Does

On Sat, 12 Jan 2008 23:45:51 -0600, none@xxxxxxx (Dersu Uzala) wrote:

In article <s9sio3hghsj4k7g2jcbc9u2mdnpd0juejk@xxxxxxx>, bbrock@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
says...

<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=grass-makes-better-ethanol-than-corn>

Farmers in Nebraska and the Dakotas brought the U.S. closer to
becoming a biofuel economy, planting huge tracts of land for the first
time with switchgrass?a native North American perennial grass (Panicum
virgatum) that often grows on the borders of cropland naturally?and
proving that it can deliver more than five times more energy than it
takes to grow it.


Like the Gnomes of South Park, they are missing "phase two". Cellulose to
alcohol hasen't been done effectively, yet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underpants_Gnomes#The_Gnomes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXZardWyiOo

You didn't read the article that I posted did you? I guess the DOE
didn't read wikipedia huh?

<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=grass-makes-better-ethanol-than-corn>

(...)

But yields from a grass that only needs to be planted once would
deliver an average of 13.1 megajoules of energy as ethanol for every
megajoule of petroleum consumed?in the form of nitrogen fertilizers or
diesel for tractors?growing them. "It's a prediction because right now
there are no biorefineries built that handle cellulosic material" like
that which switchgrass provides, Vogel notes. "We're pretty confident
the ethanol yield is pretty close." This means that switchgrass
ethanol delivers 540 percent of the energy used to produce it,
compared with just roughly 25 percent more energy returned by
corn-based ethanol according to the most optimistic studies.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is partially funding the
construction of six such cellulosic biorefineries, estimated to cost a
total of $1.2 billion. The first to be built will be the Range Fuels
Biorefinery in Soperton, Ga., which will process wood waste from the
timber industry into biofuels and chemicals. The DOE is providing an
initial $50 million to start construction.

"Cost competitive, energy responsible cellulosic ethanol made from
switchgrass or from forestry waste like sawdust and wood chips
requires a more complex refining process but it's worth the
investment," Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said at the Range Fuels
facility groundbreaking in November. "Cellulosic ethanol contains more
net energy and emits significantly fewer greenhouse gases than ethanol
made from corn."

In fact, Vogel and his team report this week in Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences USA that switchgrass will store enough
carbon in its relatively permanent root system to offset 94 percent of
the greenhouse gases emitted both to cultivate it and from the derived
ethanol burned by vehicles. Of course, this estimate also relies on
using the leftover parts of the grass itself as fuel for the
biorefinery. "The lignin in the plant cell walls can be burned," Vogel
says.

The use of native prairie grasses is meant to avoid some of the other
risks associated with biofuels such as
.

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