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205 comments on DrumBeat: March 20, 2007

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beggar on March 20, 2007 - 9:20am

The little article on growing switchgrass caompared to corn really suprised me after reading so much about how switchgrass will grow anywhere without fertilizer and with very little inputs of any kind.

How is it that farmers calculate that they can grow swithgrass for about twice the cost of growing corn?

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thomas deplume on March 20, 2007 - 10:46am

Chalk it up to lack of experience. Switchgrass is being grown in the county just east of me as fuel for a powerplant in Ottumwa, Iowa. Yields are only 3 tons/acre about 1/4 of projected potential.

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btu on March 20, 2007 - 1:57pm

Switchgrass grown in a monoculture has limitations, a better energy source would be a diverse mixture of native prairie plants approximating the original prairie in a given area. In the northern tallgrass prairie, switchgrass is a minor component with "big bluestem" as the dominent grass and "indiangrass" playing a lesser role. The hope for switchgass was genetic modification for super yields, probably from companies, Monsanto and the like, so the large agri-business players could profit. The key to the prairie is plant diversity and with this comes natural soil building and sustained fertility. With a proper rotation schedule, the prairie could be harvested for biomass and maintain a dynamic soil indefinitely without fossil fuel inputs.

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Gail the Actuary on March 20, 2007 - 3:50pm

This is a link to the DesMoines Register article on switchgrass that is referenced in the article.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070318/BUSINES...

It sounds like they are using a lot of fertilizer and herbicides, both derived from fossil fuels, and the yield is quite low.

This is a link to the Berkeley study that indicates that Cellulistic ethanol can be expected to have a very favorable energy return.

http://rael.berkeley.edu/EBAMM/

If you "Download the Model" from this site, it gives an Excel spreadsheet showing how much of various inputs and outputs are expected.

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btu on March 20, 2007 - 4:27pm

This is also a quality link to the possibility of cellulosic ethanol. The key is to use some, not all of the biomass each year (think buffalo on the prairie).

Carbon-Negative Biofuels from Low-Input High-Diversity Biomass By Dr. David Tilman and others

http://www.agobservatory.org/library.cfm?refid=96611

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