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Grass gears up for biofuels
18th April, 2008
Commercially grown grasses could produce more fuel per acre than wheat or rapeseed oil and approximately the same as sugar beet
Commercially grown grasses, which are sown by farmers instead of less productive natural grasses, could produce more fuel per acre than wheat or rapeseed oil and approximately the same as sugar beet, according to scientists from the Wales-based Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER).
The eastern counties of the UK predominantly use rapeseed oil and wheat as feedstocks for renewable fuels. The use of grass as a feedstock could be made less expensive than the arable crops if the grass was grown with clover, which fixes nitrogen from the air, as the grasses would not need fertiliser.
Iain Donnison from IGER says that technology already existed to make the sugars contained in commercial strains of perennial ryegrass grown by beef and dairy farmers into bioethanol instead of being fermented as silage to feed cows.
Around 60% of the UK's agricultural land is grassland and the development of biofuels from fermented grass sugars could provide an alternative income for livestock farmers.
Grass, which has a high sugar content, is already used in biogas plants which farmers use to produce gas used in heating and so is theoretically a first generation biofuel. Part of the grass is hard cellulose, which can only be broken down into fuel by enzyme technology, which could be mainstream in around five years.
Second generation biofuel technology could make biofuels from wood, miscanthus, or elephant grass, cheaper than either bioethanol refined from sugarcane or biodiesel refined from palm oil. The new generation of biofuels are much more energy efficient because they use more of the plant than current crops.
