Switch grass used to blanket the Eastern and Central U.S. from the Gulf Coast to Canada, providing a habitat for birds and food for deer, which would munch on the five-foot-tall perennial.
Cleared by pioneers to make room for food crops, switch grass was relegated to use as erosion control in low-quality land but may be making a comeback.
President Bush, during the State of the Union address, said the U.S. is "addicted" to oil and presented switch grass as part of a new energy initiative.
"We'll also fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn, but from wood chips and stalks, or switch grass," Mr. Bush said. "Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years."
Mr. Bush's 2007 federal budget includes $150 million -- a 65% increase over fiscal-year 2006 -- for development of fuels from alternative crops like switch grass and agricultural waste such as cornstalks or wheat straw. Most ethanol produced in the U.S. is corn-based.
"We can readily address, with research, 30% of current transportation-fuel needs. But reaching that goal will require five to 10 years and significant policy and technical effort," said Arthur Ragauskas, a professor at Georgia Tech's School of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Scientists have been working for decades waiting for this day, improving the yield of drought- and pest-resistant switch grass while experimenting with ways to make a more efficient process of turning grass into fuel.
Although the energy return of producing ethanol from switch grass is more than seven times greater than that for corn, breaking down those tough grass fibers into fuel is difficult and expensive.
Though pilot plants working on the concept of what is commonly called "cellulosic ethanol technology" have been discussed and even operated at times on a small scale in California, Idaho, Kansas and Louisiana, there are no commercial operations in the U.S. None are in the works, even though Brazil has replaced 50% of its gasoline needs with ethanol made from sugar-cane cellulose in just 15 years.
The difficulty lies in the cellulose of switch grass, which provides strength to the plant and is highly resistant to breakdown, unlike cornstarch.
The dry-grind process is the most common method used to produce corn alcohol. In this process, the whole corn kernel is ground and soaked in hot water to which yeast enzymes are added, which produces alcohol as a byproduct of fermentation. An average acre of corn produces about 400 gallons of fuel alcohol, while an acre of switch grass yields 1,150 gallons of ethanol.
If plant waste could be used, the U.S. would have the capability to produce 60 billion gallons of ethanol annually, National Economic Council Director Al Hubbard said Wednesday in a conference call with U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman.The Wall Street Journal
