Switch Grass: Fuel for the Future?
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 02. 3.06
NPR has a good, quick introduction to switch grass, which snuck its way into this week's State of the Union address as an example of a new energy technology available to help replace oil imports. Thus far, it has been far enough under the radar that TreeHugger hasn't covered it; so what is it, and how does it work? David Bransby, a Professor of Energy Crops at Auburn University, enlighted us. Here are the highlights: it grows eight or nine feet tall, native to the US. Generally, it's very hearty and will grow in nearly any climatic variation, from the Gulf Coast into Canada. As a crop, it has a very high yield per acre (five to tens tons) with little use of pesticides, and a low production cost, which are two keys for economical production of alternative fuels. Switch grass can net up to 100 gallons of ethanol per ton, which is more efficient than corn, it's better-known counterpart, and switch grass also uses the whole plant for making fuel, whereas corn uses just the grain. Sounds almost too good to be true, but we like what we're hearing so far. More details to be had by listening here. via ::NPR
I wonder how many gallons of ethanol you could net from a ton of kudzu?
There have been some pretty wild switchgrass-ethanol arguments across the web since the SOTU.
Rather than get into that, I think it is important to remember that switchgrass could be making an energy impact as early as next season - in home heating.
The big news this season was corn stoves. Stoves which accept switchgrass pellets are already on the market as well (though to my knowledge, the switchgrass pellets themselves have not yet made it to the consumer).
Here's the stove, from Dell-Point
it's not just for ethanol tho it's way better than corn, like u sid (not to mention if they did that "UW-Madison process" as well..oooh!)
but also for heat too! and you did kinda sorta have it in TH. sorta. in that marathon post on pellets in the comments, there's this guy who does awesome switchgrass pellet devlopment in his 83% efficient pellet stoves
hey noway! thats funny, i was writing that comment while u were sending yours odograph iswear, but thats the same guy! ha ha ha!!
" ...and switch grass also uses the whole plant for making fuel, whereas corn uses just the grain."
It was my understanding that corn alchohol is made from the stover, not the grains. Am I wrong?
Monoculture always has it's risks. Why not mixed species of native prairie grasses --- leaving a bit here and there for the buffalo?
My family grows switchgrass and soy down in southern Virginia. The switch was easy...order a few hundred pounds of seed, pop it in the seeder (in our case, pulled by a 1949 John Deere 'B' like you posted the other day, not biodiesel though), and you're set. It grows all by itself, no fertilizers or irrigation needed.
We're actually paid to grow it as an easement. It's not harvested, just cut. The rationale being it's a good soil stabilizer, and we have lots of marshy areas on the farm. I'm excited about the cellulosic research.
I wouldn't really worry about it. Apparently, One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.
this is very interesting.. I really want to get a rika pellet stove if they'd make switch grass pellet stoves I'd be really happy.
The real news is that cellulosic ethanol can be made not only from switchgrass, but also other ag waste, forestry waste, and even urban waste. It can even be made from fossil fuels. Most of the cellulosic talk has been based on the use of enzymes to convert the feedstock cellulose into sugars and the sugars fermented rather conventionally. The other way is through emission-free syngas fermentation which is what my BioConversion Blog is focused on. Gasify a great range of feedstock (including trash) into synthesis gas. One solution converts the syngas into ethanol and water using a biologic agent. The yield is more than 100 gallons/ton. It is at the pilot plant stage now - full scale commercialization should be later this year.
Question - how much exhaust emits from pellet stoves and what does it consist of?
It seems to me that, while pellets made from whatever source are perhaps less expensive than natural gas, the stoves would still be emitting greenhouse gases in the form of CO2.
John Laumer,
Switchgrass is native to the midwest. The praries were pratcically carpeted in the stuff. Buffalo ate it all the time.
Scott, the pelletstove.com site has some PDF files with emissons details.
As far as CO2 and natural gas - yes, burning either for home heat releases CO2, but at least the grass captured the CO2 from the atmosphere earlier that season. The problem with fossil fuels (including nat gas) is that we are freeing "fossil" CO2 stored across millions of years.
Scott,
While burning bio material such as switchgrass, corn, wood, whatever...there is CO2 being released. However, the great part is that there is no net contribution of Carbon to the atmosphere, you're just releasing the carbon that the plant captured and stored while growing. The same is true of fossil fuels, except that the carbon was captured millions of years ago.
is there an echo in here??
do anybody know what the latin name is for switch grass? thank you
"My family grows switchgrass and soy down in southern Virginia. The switch was easy...order a few hundred pounds of seed, pop it in the seeder (in our case, pulled by a 1949 John Deere 'B' like you posted the other day, not biodiesel though), and you're set. It grows all by itself, no fertilizers or irrigation needed.
We're actually paid to grow it as an easement. It's not harvested, just cut. The rationale being it's a good soil stabilizer, and we have lots of marshy areas on the farm. I'm excited about the cellulosic research."
I´ve got a question for you. I have a three hectare finca in central Spain. I´ve been thinking about trying to grow some form of plant like switchgrass on a slightly marshy area of my property to use as fuel for my masonry stove. The questions, more than one, is do you think it will grow well here (climate similar to south central California with hot summers, mild winters and short rainy periods in fall and spring)and on that slightly marshy area?. Will it burn well in a wood-burning stove? Can a horse eat the stuff?
I think using switch grass pellets for home heating is a great idea. At the same time, I think that using switch grass to make ethanol isn't a great idea.
Ethanol doesn't really gain you much over the amount of energy used to make it (from an oil perspective). Not only that, but the amount of energy stored in ethanol doesn't come close enough to regular unleaded to make it feasible as a feul replacement for vehicles (you need about 1.5 times as much ethanol to get the equivalent energy).
I'd much rather see a focus on biodiesel which actually contains MORE energy than your standard tank of unleaded gas.
-Riskable
http://www.riskable.com
"I have a license to kill -9"
i have a farm in IL. looking to do something with it? IS growing this grass a $ maker? WHo buys the grass to refine? who Refines it? Can I refine it to sell? If you have info please email me it...Kentertainyou@aol.com
I would have to disagree with Riskable, I feel that any chance of producing our own fuel in America should be considered. The only way I would have to change my mind is if the processes of manufaturing used more energy than it potentially generated. As far as it not having equilivant mpg or octane, so what? I would gladly give up the opportunity to drive 95 mph in order to have a "decent" alternative to oil based gasoline. I can live with out massive 4x4 suburbans that never leave the pavement. We have come to be so spoiled in what our vehicles can do now, that we do not realize that it was not long ago that anyone who got 15 mpg was lucky. The fuel was just cheaper back then. I for one am more than willing to make sacrafices now because I am confident that five years from now most of the problems mentioned will just be passing memories.
can alcohol be used exclusively or must, like ethanol be mixed?
i want to grow, distill grain for my own purpose with no need for gas, diesel or even biofuels that require major technology.
i heard somewhere that the Germans during one of those wars used alcohol exclusively. true?? i sure hope so.
If anyone is interested in really doing something here.
I have the domains:
switchgrasscrops.com /.biz /.net / .info available.
I'm selling for a very low price and really hoping someone will buy them that will get this ball rolling.
I'm not looking for any huge profit so please don't consider this spam, tx
The latin name of the native switchgrass is "panicum virgatum". The great thing about it is that it grows on marginal lands (unlike corn)from marshlike to almost arid and is a perennial grass that increases in size as it ages. It benefits from being cut.
Wood (for pellets) is becoming increasingly more expensive to process and takes years to come to size.
A somewhat dated (but informative site) is http://healthandenergy.com/biofuels.htm
Now, if we could just get some processing plants built.
I have a little ''moist'' area on my te acresa or so. I'd like to try growing switch grass. Where do I find seed? Thanks.
We have a pelleting mill in the works that will make Switchgrass pellets for heating purposes.We hope to up and manufacturing in 2007.
Danville IL. We heat with Thermal solar & Passive solar now and have a back up wood pellet stove that works great on those real gray days. but pellets are getting more costly all the time. Hope to hear from others that are interested in switchgrass.
So if you had a good piece of land, say 30 acres, and good water and soil, how many tons of this grass could you expect? This sounds like a good idea. I suspect that you don't have to "re-seed" every year, either. Minimum cultivation! What a deal!!
This is what Burl was talking about. You were right--a treehugger!!
Riskable....biodeisel is a great idea, I built a small test factory to produce it in SE Asia. But you are missing a major point suggesting that people should focus on it instead of ethanol.
Biodeisel is not a viable alternative to regular deisel, because there isn't enough raw material to produce it. Try obtaining a reliable long term, large quantity source of used cooking oils that is of high enough quality to use, and you will know what I am talking about.
U guys are talking about switch grass and making it have you ever been to a plant to try and make it, if so what was the best way to do it because they haven't really found a cheap way to break down the sugars yet
I was just wondering?
Pellets are too expensive. Little savings. It takes too much energy and equipment to make them. You need a high mass stove and burn the GRASS. Cut it to size. Bundle and compress it.
Ron Wagner
HELP!
I'm a middle schooler learning about alternitive energy. Where can I get a hand full of switch grass seed for a class project?
Thanks,
Ryan
Ron, just google switch grass seed and you will have several sites to choose from.
does anyone know of any company in the USA that is planning a pilot or start up plant to turn switch grass into a biofuel ?
My dad owns a sod co.
Switch grass is not profitable!
Cuds, switch grass is not a sod grass obviously, it is a crop!!!!
We are building a biomass stove and I need to locate a supplier of grass pellets for testing. Anyone know where I can get them?
Thanks.
MHC
i think switch grass could be the future enemy of islam? Does that mean no market for middle east oil?
Switch grass seems to be the rage. Yes, it probably does produce more ethanol, but has anyone looked at the cost of production of the grass? You would have large transportation of raw product problems, winter weather storage problems to keep the plant running, and major waste product disposal problems. Switch grass sounds good in the test tube, but lets try relying on it for our main source of energy.
Think!!!!!
In terms of energy output compared with energy input for ethanol production, the study found that:
* corn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced;
* switch grass requires 45 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced; and
* wood biomass requires 57 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced.
In terms of energy output compared with the energy input for biodiesel production, the study found that:
* soybean plants requires 27 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced, and
* sunflower plants requires 118 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/07/050705231841.htm
u know if we dont find another way of fueling our economy than the middle east will have a strangle hold on us
We have done fuel cycle anlaysis on all the major ways to grow energy from temperate farmland. The most ecological and cost efficient way to collect solar energy on farms using plants is to grow native warm season grasses (like switchgrass) and turn them into densfied fuels to replace coal, heating oil and natural gas in thermal energy applications. You will get more net energy gain and GHG offset than any other option thats economically viable.
Our web site (www.reap-canada.com) is the leading information source on grass pellet heat technology. It is true when environmentalists say most biofuels do not reduce GHG's at all or appreciably. However the same cannot be said for prairie grasses for thermal energy offsets.
Here are a couple of links which shows how much more efficient this concept is than annual grains and oilseed biofuels as well as cellulosic ethanol (even if its made from switchgrass).
http://www.reap-canada.com/library.htm
see the first and third reports down on the list
regards
roger samson
executive director
www.reap-canada.com
I have noticed studies calculating the nett energy gained from ethanol over the amount of energy used to produce was based on petroleum as the source of energy to produce.
Wouldn't it have been better to use Ethanol as the main energy for production? And calculate on those results? Because one day we are going to run out of oil altogether and ethanol doesn't produce as much energy ouput per the same volume in petroleum. The results would then show a lower net energy gained than what has been reported.
Where can I purchase switch grass pellets in Iowa?
Anyone? Anyone?
The price of gas will exceed $4.00/gal. in the next 2 monthes. The price of a barrel of oil is projected to exceed $200/barrel. The combination of the gas problem, the cost of the war, and the real estate problem will leave this country on its knees economically. We need something to compete with oil to keep the price of fuel under control. At the present time the oil industry is a monopoly in the form of OPEC. If we don't find something the home of the true and the brave will cease.
In reference to the posts about using Switchgrass for feeding animals like cows and horses you should avoid doing so as much as you possibly can. Switchgrass contains compounds which will damage their livers and also will cause them to be photo sensitive to sunlight which is not a good thing. As a fuel source it's great but not as animal feed at all.
If grass is such a good resource for making diesel, why can't you use lawn grass cuttings? Much of it ends up in landfills and landscaping companies have tons of it every day to get rid of.
Bill Gouty-you left a comment "We have a pelleting mill in the works that will make Switchgrass pellets for heating purposes.We hope to up and manufacturing in 2007.
Danville IL. We heat with Thermal solar & Passive solar now and have a back up wood pellet stove that works great on those real gray days. but pellets are getting more costly all the time. Hope to hear from others that are interested in switchgrass." I am near Danville IL and was curious what happened, if this is still in the making? Thank you!
Anybody who doesnt think switchgrass is a good idea is most likely working for some oil company or satan.
I have a biofuel stove. I've fueled it with corn and wood and am ready to try switch grass pellets. Where can I get some here in the US (preferably in PA or MD)?