Switch from corn to grass would raise ethanol output, cut emissions

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://news.illinois.edu/news/11/0712switch_EvanDeLucia.html

Switch from corn to grass would raise ethanol output, cut emissions

7/12/2011 | Diana Yates, Life Sciences Editor | 217-333-5802; [email protected]

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Growing perennial grasses on the least productive farmland now used for corn ethanol production in the U.S. would result in higher overall corn yields, more ethanol output per acre and better groundwater quality, researchers report in a new study. The switch would also slash emissions of two potent greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.

The study used a computer model of plant growth and soil chemistry to compare the ecological effects of growing corn (Zea mays L.); miscanthus (Miscanthus x giganteus), a sterile hybrid grass used in bioenergy production in Western Europe; and switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), which is native to the U.S.

The analysis found that switching 30 percent of the least productive corn acres to miscanthus offered the most ecological advantages.

“If cellulosic feedstocks (such as miscanthus) were planted on cropland that is currently used for ethanol production in the U.S., we could achieve more ethanol (82 percent more) and grain for food (4 percent more), while reducing nitrogen leaching (by 15 to 22 percent) and greenhouse gas emissions (by 29 percent to 473 percent),” the researchers wrote in their report, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.

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[Botany]

1. thanx for posting

n/t

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. You’re welcome! n/t

[msongs]

2. the corn lobby will spend any amount necessary to buy votes in opposition. nt

[Long Shadow]

4. Ethanol subsidies are one of the many examples of how well intended program

is transformed into a gravy train full of passengers who refuse to disembark.

Besides that, the stuff costs consumes more energy to produce than it generates. And to add injury to insult, it causes damage to combustible engines.

So, switching to grass is a great idea. Just don't subsidize it or force me to put it in my car.

[robinlynne]

6. well intended? Jeb Bush was the head of the ethanol "society" when his brother created the

subsidies. It was intended to go right onto Bush family deposit slips. Maybe they didn't tell us that, but that is how and why the subsidy was created.

[laser_red]

7. ethanol subsidies began in 1978 Jeb Bush? really? .nt

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

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[Fledermaus]

5. The criteria for Federal biomass funds sould be based on increases in soil carbon.

If a biomass process can produce fuel while increasing soil carbon, then it should recive Federal help.

Insisting on one feed stock, like corn, is silly.