For a number of years, researchers at the University of Illinois have been exploring bioenergy sources. This includes field trials where corn, switchgrass and miscanthus are grown side-by-side for comparison.
Of these three, miscanthus has emerged as the obvious leader, generating enough biomass to produce 250 percent more ethanol per acre than corn. And the advantages over corn don’t stop there.
Miscanthus x giganteus is a perennial grass that can reach a height of 14 feet. By using a sterile hybrid, planted fields can easily be reclaimed for other crops such as corn and soybeans.
It is not considered invasive in the U.S. and Europe, where it has been grown extensively.
Miscanthus is a pretty tough plant. It requires much less input, such as fertilizers and pesticides, than corn and tolerates poor soil well. This opens up the possibilities for where it could be grown as it doesn’t necessarily have to use land that is already being used for crop production.
Besides being a carbon-neutral energy source, M. x giganteus is also a carbon-sequestering plant.
This is important when considering climate change because miscanthus takes carbon that would otherwise be in the atmosphere and releases it into the soil.
U of I is using biofuel to heat the Fisher House at the SoyFACE facility. They estimate that by replacing natural gas with miscanthus produced heat energy, they have prevented the emissions of 51 tons of carbon per year.
Though it doesn’t sound like much, this is based on only one home. Imagine how substantial that number could be if we all switched to miscanthus to heat our homes!
Like any large-scale project, there are still kinks that need to be worked out.
Although most of the care for M. x giganteus can be done with equipment that farmers use now for other crops, planting is a little trickier.
Because it is a sterile hybrid, M. x giganteus can only be propagated by rhizome, which took the team at U of I a full day to plant 15 acres. In Europe, there is a patented piece of equipment that can plant 50 acres per day.
The actual processing of miscanthus into energy could be handled by our current power utilities, but a new thermal-pressure conversion method is likely to be more effective. This process may be able to convert biomass into biodiesel with an energy efficiency of 75 percent.
The confidences of the farmer and consumer as well as the creation of markets for this biomass and further research are necessary before implementation begins.
As for M. x giganteus itself, it has been completely unimproved for the trials at U of I. It is thought that there is potential to increase its yield, similar to the improvements made to corn over the last 50 years.We’re still a long way from your average consumer being able to use miscanthus produced energy, but the evidence so far shows a promising alternative to fossil fuels. Find out more at: miscanthus.illinois.edu