In Illinois, scientists are exploring how grasses, and switchgrass in particular, can enrich the nation’s biofuel supply, which is currently dominated by corn, a crop relatively easy to convert to biofuel but also in demand for food, livestock feed and industrial products. A team of national laboratory and university researchers led by the U.S. Department […]
In Illinois, researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign say that the sustainability of water must be taken into effect when exploring large-scale production of biomass crops like miscanthus and switchgrass because of their much higher water use than corn. Because the grasses have more surface area and much denser growth than corn they lose […]
In Germany, the country is expecting to nearly double the land used for growing energy crops by 2020 to 3 million hectares, up from a current 1.8 million hectares now. The agriculture minister stressed that priority will be given for food production over energy production, however.
Biofuels Technology Roadmap released; 3 billion tonnes of biomass needed per year; 27% market share in fuel transport by 2050 In Washington, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said that it expects biofuels to generate $11-$13 trillion in production between 2010 and 2050, and the global share of biofuel in total transport fuel to grow from […]
At the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference, Ceres CEO Richard Hamilton said that “feedstock is the #1 cost in bioenergy, and to drive results, we need to drive yield.” Hamilton told the 450 conference delegates that companies must look to low-rent land for opportunities to produce sustainable biofuels, noting that, for example, salt-intruded fields in represented […]
In California, a survey of growers conducted by Ceres found that 71% of respondents were very interested or interested in growing dedicated energy crops. Moreover, 77% said they had under-utilized land on which to establish energy grasses like switchgrass, sorghum and miscanthus. The poll, which was weighted to the Southeast United States found that “growers […]
