Coal-Fired Power Generator To Supplement Boiler Feed With Switchgrass And Sorghum

Sorghum seed cluster. Image credit:Wikipedia

Remember all the excitement over growing switch grass as feedstock for ethanol fuel? Forget that sissy fermentation stuff. Real powerhouses burn it outright. NRG Energy Inc, a company with combined generation capacity of 24,000 megawatts, plans trial burns of switchgrass and sorghum (as pictured) to supplement the coal normally fed to boilers at the company's Big Cajun II power plant, in Louisiana. Sorghum has been around for centuries as a food grain, a molasses substitute, and a pasturing plant. Chopped up, it is also used for sileage. Because power plant emission limits are measured on a per-ton of fossil fuel consumed basis, and because coal fired plants may be carbon "capped" in proportion to fossil-fuel derived emissions only, a power plant might be able to add some biofuel, up it's capacity, stay within permit limits, and avoid purchasing carbon credits. Sounds like a strategy.Via Washington Examiner

NRG is planting 20 acres of switchgrass and sorghum at the plant site using seed and growing techniques provided by Ceres, a developer and marketer of high-yield energy grasses.