In North Carolina, a yarn producer sold its 60% stake in Repreve Renewables, a company selling miscanthus seeds to farmers in order to boost biofuel production. The main market has, instead, been for poultry bedding due to the slow uptake of the crop for energy use. The company took a $1.66 million loss from selling […]
In Massachusetts, Boston-based Ukraine Agro Valley Association wants to set up 20 biomass power plants around the Ukraine in order to wean the country off of Russian gas. The company wants to use miscanthus as feedstock, with 10,000 acres of the crop surrounding each of the 20 plants that would then be converted into pellets […]
In North Carolina, Repreve Renewables has been selected to provide the agricultural and business development services for the University of Iowa’s Biomass Fuel Project. The company’s giant miscanthus, planted and established by its Accu Yield system, will be used as fuel in the university’s power plant. Repreve’s next step involves securing land commitments for 2,500 […]
In the UK, in a paper just released in the leading bioenergy journal Global Change Biology Bioenergy, researchers from Bangor University and the Thünen Institute in Germany conclude that crop-biogas and liquid biofuels are at best inefficient options for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation, per hectare of land used and per £ public subsidy required. At […]
In Illinois, a recent study by researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne simulated a side-by-side comparison of the yields and costs of producing ethanol using miscanthus, switchgrass, and corn stover. The fast-growing energy grass miscanthus was the clear winner. Models predict that miscanthus will have higher yield and profit, particularly when grown in poor-quality […]
In Iowa, miscanthus would deliver even better yields than once thought in Iowa, according to research by agronomists at Iowa State University. The research indicates that miscanthus, a towering grass native to Asia, could have a major role to play in the future of Iowa agriculture, both as a source of biomass for energy and […]
Two gems from the University of Illinois on miscanthus. First, this one that found that miscanthus and other biofuels crops actually reduce the escape of nitrogen into the environment, according to a study performed at the University of Illinois. The study compared miscanthus, switchgrass, and mixed prairie species against a traditional corn and soybean rotation, […]
In North Carolina, farmers and landowners are participating in a unique program from Greensboro-based Repreve Renewables to grow giant miscanthus grass for renewable product solutions. This innovative program provides famers with an economic alternative for underutilized and marginal land. The company developed a comprehensive solution for planting biomass at commercial scale, including solving the significant […]
In Illinois, researchers from the University of Illinois show that in the country’s first long-term studies into miscanthus that even though production slips after five years, biomass production is still double that of switchgrass. The results in the US are even more promising than those from studies done in Europe. Miscanthus was grown in seven […]
In California, Algenetix announced a partnership to develop high-oil miscanthus as a new source of biodiesel and biojet fuel. The partnership combines Algenetix’s proprietary, trademarked PhotoSeed technology expanding oil production into new plant species and physiologies with Alchimia’s oil extraction and purification technology to economically produce oil and other coproducts from the perennial grass at scale.
