Commodities: Field Crops: Forages: FAQs
Grassoline...really?
Crop scientists, engineers, and economists from around the US have studied the potential of producing biofuel from switchgrass, and their results have shown it to be promising. Though the technology and infrastructure to support the production, transportation, and conversion of switchgrass biomass into a biofuel is still on the horizon, some pilot projects are underway. For example, the University of Tennessee, Genera Energy, and DuPont-Danisco have partnered on a new switchgrass-to-ethanol pilot facility in Vonore, TN. They broke ground on this plant in October 2008. Several farmers within a 50-mile radius of this eastern Tennessee plant have been contracted to produce switchgrass for this project. The initiative’s plans are to have as many as 6,500 acres of switchgrass in that area by the end of 2010 (see www.UTbioenergy.org for more details on this initiative).