Sea of grasses could yield biofuels to power tomorrow
By SUSAN SALISBURY
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
BELLE GLADE — The tall grasses make a swishing sound as they bend in the breeze over a 2-acre plot of black muck in the heart of South Florida's Glades growing region.
But they're not everyday plants. These grasses - sugar cane hybrids, elephant grass and giant reed among them - could be part of the solution to the nation's energy crisis.
Bioenergy crops
The 45 varieties of energy crops being grown at the University of Florida center in Belle Glade belong to eight major categories:
Sugar cane hybrids or energy cane, perennials
Elephant grass, a perennial tropical grass
Giant reed (Arundo donax), a perennial tropical grass
Erianthus, a perennial tropical grass
Hybrid miscanthus, a perennial tropical grass
Switchgrass, a perennial North American prairie grass
Sweet sorghum, an annual grass, also used for cattle feed
Hybrid corn, a tropical corn selected for high biomass
Source: University of Florida
"The good news is that we have had several crops that have shown promise. We need to look at them closer," said Zane Helsel, a Rutgers University agronomist who is spending a year at the University of Florida Everglades Research and Education Center, studying 45 experimental crop varieties.
Helsel, 58, is trying to figure out which of the grasses are best-suited for South Florida's climate, and which have the potential to produce the most energy.
The research, which costs about $1 million, is being conducted at a time when record-high fuel prices have increased interest in renewable energy.
Florida's fuel ethanol industry is expected to start production sometime in 2009.
Although Midwestern feed corn is the primary stock for ethanol in the United States, it does not make sense to transport that corn to Florida to make ethanol, he said. An economical, local ethanol stock is needed.
"Unlike coal and oil, all biomass energy will be relatively local because of its low energy density," Helsel said. "Petroleum is almost pure energy. Biomass' energy value is significantly lower than petroleum. You cannot afford to transport it a long way."
Helsel and Curtis Rainbolt, a weed scientist at the center, made the first energy crop plantings about a year ago.
After initial evaluations, the two scientists selected the top 20 highest-yielding grasses in terms of biomass and planted them in a second 2-acre block near Clewiston in cooperation with landowner Florida Crystals Corp. of West Palm Beach.
"This is very preliminary research," said Rainbolt, 32. "We don't want to rule anything out at this point."
The crop mix includes giant reed, or Arundo donax, a tropical grass that has become a seriously invasive weed in California and Texas.
Millions of dollars have been spent trying to eradicate it from natural areas there, Rainbolt said.
"We don't have records to indicate its behavior in Florida," he said. "It has not become an invasive problem yet. We are being very cautious with it. We are keeping it very confined."
The idea promoted by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson is that farmers could grow the bioenergy crops during the off-season and have another source of income.
Terry McElroy, spokesman for the state Agriculture Department, said the crop research is crucial to the future of the ethanol and renewable-energy industries.
"Before people will invest large sums of money, they will want to know what crops to grow and what processes to use to convert these commodities to energy," McElroy said.
There is a sense of urgency to the scientists' efforts, given the stakes. During the oil crisis of the 1970s, some work was done on bioenergy crops, but it did not continue, said Christine Waddill, director of the UF center.
"This time we realize this crisis is not going to go away," Waddill said. "It's a national security issue. It's costing our economy."
That makes the research even more important, said Matt Hartwig, spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association in Washington.
"Everyone who has looked at the issue understands that there is a limited amount of ethanol than can be produced from corn," Hartwig said.
"Being able to develop additional feedstocks expands the number of feedstocks and opens ethanol production to regions of the country that people do not associate with renewable fuels today, like Florida."
Within the year, Helsel and Rainbolt will take some of their crops to a lab in Gainesville to test their ability to produce cellulosic ethanol.
Because the crops can be grown at will all year long, the grasses offer more energy flexibility than traditional fossil fuels like oil, Helsel said.
"The bad news is we cannot just turn on a spigot, drive up to a pump and put it in our gas tanks as easily as fossil fuels," he said.
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