5 Things You Didn't Know Were Biofuels

When talk turns to biofuels, it often soon turns to food shortages next. Biofuel doesn't have to be made from food staple crops, though.

Here are five unexpected potential biofuels:

Giant Grass:
Giant Grass, also known as Elephant Grass or Miscanthus, yields twice the amount of ethanol per acre than corn or switchgrass ethanol in one quarter of the space.

Miscanthus, for instance, is able to grow on land too marginal for crop production, so it doesn't have to compete with land for food crops. It also doesn't require major input or fertilization after planting and once established will yield for around 15 years.

Agave:
No longer known solely as the main ingredient in tequila or agave nectar, Mexican scientists began to test the viability of the agave plant as a potential ethanol producer. Scientists estimate that agave can produce up to 2,000 gallons of ethanol per acre per year and increase to 18,000 gallons if the plant's cellulose is processed. The plant is also praised for its durability.

Algae:
Sapphire Energy, a biopetroleum producer, boasts a renewable, high-octane diesel made from algae called Green Crude that is chemically identical to gasoline.

"The resulting gasoline is completely compatible with current infrastructure, meaning absolutely no change to consumer's cars." This is of course in addition to the benefit that their Green Crude is a carbon neutral fuel.

Kudzu:
The kudzu plant, which is also known as "the plant that ate the South" grows vigorously in the United States at a rate of 6.5 feet a week.

Researchers estimate that kudzu could produce 2.2 to 5.3 tons of carbohydrate per acre in much of the South, or about 270 gallons per acre of ethanol, which is comparable to the yield for corn of 210 to 320 gallons per acre. They recently published their findings in Biomass and Bioenergy.

Sugarcane-Giant Grass Hybrid:
Giok Se Tijong created Tijong grass, a sugarcane- giant grass hybrid plant in his homeland of Indonesia in the 1950's as quality cattle feed. Recently, the retired minister was inspired to test his plant for it's biofuel potential.

Preliminary tests show that the grass has a high carbohydrate content (71.26%) and Tijong has produced ethanol from it in his home laboratory, but he has yet to receive enough backing to do much more.

Related:

::Watch this video of algae as biofuel, cooking oil, health supplement on the Huffington Post.
::More on green energy from the Huffington Post.

Comments

[AntiStrauss]

Two problematic data points:
1. Four of these ideas require cellulosic ethanol. Plants have elaborate multilevel mechanisms to protect their cellulose carbohydrates from rapid consumption by bacteria. Only ruminant animals have a digestive system that can handle cellulose and derive some energy--that requires four stomachs! Cellulosic ethanol is a great political talking point but nothing more right now. The coupe de gras came when Iogen, the Canadian enzyme company with the best cellulosic ethanol technology, canceled the two large plants it was planning in the U.S. Now they are trying to get a project started in eastern Europe. Their production size is only 5% of the current ethanol production standard. Cellulosic ethanol is a long way off.
2. Algae cultivation rapidly runs into the wall of low volumetric productivity. To be useful, the energy must come from photosynthesis. The thicker the algae in the growing vessel the harder it is to get light for photosynthesis to them. I have been following this technology for 25 years and have seen dozens of plans for how to get around the problem--none of which has ever worked at large scale.
I am sorry that these are the facts because I am an optimist who really wants these kinds of energy projects to work! But we are better off facing the facts we don't want to believe than expecting the ideas to save us and being disappointed.

[truthynesslover]

What about hemp?It grows like a weed and is native to the u.s.?{and no im not a toker!}

[strick9]

There are many other uses fro hemp, than getting high. The seeds have a high oil content, which could produce bio-diesel, the fiber for a linen like fabric, and medical use. If the video at the attached link is true then those responsible for prohibition should be held responsible for a century of death, pain, and suffering.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7331006790306000271

[OldKnute]

Yes, the one that I think will be the best out of these 5 is the Algae, it reproduces so fast and can be used to scrub the gasses of Coal Fired Power Plants. Solar Exposed, growing in greenhouses using transparent tubes. Harvested as a liquid, processed on site, or piped to processing facilities.

The other one I always appreciate is the Jerusalem artichoke, or Sunchoke. A good source of food but they can take over a field. They will re-spawn from their root, even after harvesting. Many farmers in the south regard the Sunchoke as a weed. I hated this plant as a boy. You had to pull them out by the roots, and they came back almost as fast as you pulled them.

Guess times and needs change and opinions.

Three crops in one.

The fields can be let to cattle, and they will eat the tops and flowers, high in Protein.

The tubers can then be harvested, like potatoes, and converted to Alcohol. Corn yields about 200 Gallons per acre, the Jerusalem artichoke will produce 1,700 to 1,800 gallons per acre.

The resultant material Post-Distillation, can then be dried and fed to Cattle, sheep and goats as a protein supplement.

Here is a link.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_artichoke

All the best

Knute Neo-LIB

[darthdarcy]

HEMP HEMP HEMP...!

The seeds will make bio diesel and the stalks great for ethanol production...

Let's keep'em honest, it is the #1 bio mass plant on Earth and renews every 4 months and is not invasive...!

[Organic-Guy]

The one thing that gets over looked in the biofuels debate is that you can't just take from the soil forever, without consequence. you have to put something back. Extracting carbon from our soil with any crop, will eventually catch up with us.
We need to radically improve our propulsion systems and high on that list is the elimination of the piston engine. It's a dinosaur and it has to go. Anything under 100 miles per gallon is unacceptable and the piston engine we're so in love with will never be able to achieve that milestone in efficiency.
We need to do everything we can to reduce our fuel use as we go along. some answers are technological and others are sociological.
We need more people friendly cites and much better urban planning and we need to stop building subdivision miles away from where people work and shop.
In short we need to all become real conservatives. We haven't seen any of that for a long time! Are there any left?

[OldKnute]

Yes,, lets put conserve, and conservation back into Conservativeism ,,, Organicguy.

I agree.

As far as the land. Lets stop dumping poisons onto the land that come from oil companies,,, what we are told,,, are fertilizers.

I choose Worming over artificial fertilizers. Worms will eat almost anything that has been alive, except citrus and pine needles or peppers. Manures and farm waste especially.

An unknown secret about worms, is that within their craw, they actually breakdown the sands and gravels of the earth and produce dissolved mineral salts. Just think of the sands and aggregates acting like their TEETH. Much like how a chicken must take in sands and gravel to digest their food properly. Worms can process half their body weight in waste every day. OR,,, 1000 pounds of Worms = 500 pounds of waste converted and purified, ready to be added to the soils. OR,, make a liquid Fertilizer from their castings. Worm Tea.

But yes,,, we need to give back to the soils.

All the best

Knute Neo-LIB

[AntiStrauss]

The assumption in this argument is that plants extract something from the soil that is never returned. This is simply not true. Plants use light from the sun and combine it with carbon dioxide from the air to build the carbon molecules that are used in biofuels. The small amount of minerals taken up can be returned to the soil by application of the residues left after refining the carbohydrates into biofuels. This is already being done to provide closed loop ethanol production.

[kwright]

"There's enough alcohol in one year's yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for one hundred years." - Henry Ford

[leduck]

cellulosic ethanol is not viable yet
corn is all that is out there and it has an EROIE of only about 1:1 or less
sugar is better but we're not brazil
we don't have their climate

so re-write this article when it actually makes sense to write it
you know -- when the science is ready

[strick9]

The use of corn need not be the cause for the food shortage. The largest use for corn in the Midwest, is animal feed. Feed for dairy, beef cattle, pork, etc. When yeast converts carbohydrates to alcohol it produces a much larger volume of yeast in the mash. If this mash is dried and used for animal feed there is little if any loss and if you don't dry it first I suppose you would have more contented cows. Silage, chopped corn or Milo including stalks placed in silos or trenches to ferment, has been used for dairy feed for as long as I remember. The major problem is the energy used to distill the mash. This is what needs to be addressed. If the heat removed at condensation is reused for evaporation the efficiency would be greatly improved.

[Gustaf26a]

You say that "Elephant Grass or Miscanthus, yields twice the amount of ethanol per acre than corn or switchgrass ethanol in one quarter of the space." -- Huh? Are you saying EG yields twice as much ethanol as corn or switchgrass using a quarter the space? Or how about EG yields eight times more ethanol per acre than corn or switchgrass?

[jaundicedview]

Al this is assuming a working model for cellulosic ethanol, which is not ready for primetime. Hope they get it worked out, the Kudzu problem would dissappear overnight. Replaced of course with other problems.

[MaeScott]

http://tinyurl.com/595ah4
Link to video of Mr. Mizell on a news broadcast

"Mr Mizell of Cleveland, TN, calls his kudzu-based ethanol "Kudzunol". On a Cleveland hillside, Mr. Mizell and wife, Sue, harvested lots of kudzu.
Mr. Mizell, a locksmith who has spent most of his 54 years tinkering, was not about to throw in the towel, not into a patch of weeds anyway. Kudzu is a plant. It's full of natural sugars just like corn. It thrives in the South. So, what if you distilled the stuff?
"Oh, yes, we got some strange looks," his wife admitted.
The vines went into a chipper and then home and into a food processor. Then "Moonshine 101" came in. Mr. Mizell rigged a still on his mother's patio. The resulting 80-proof liquid, he said, smells like rum.
Five gallons of kudzu mash equals a half gallon of ethanol. But Mr. Mizell thinks he can improve the yield with some better equipment.
"That thing over there," he pointed to the still, "is much like the African Queen, leaking and belching steam."

American Ingenuity..

[kwright]

Henry Ford manufactured a hemp car in 1941. His other cars were meant to run on hemp fuel.

[sustainable]

we know who slammed the breaks on hemp!

[Mildmannered]

corn does NOT work and should not be promoted by our government

[einherjar]

Yep, you are right.

Corn based ethanol is the least efficient of the ethanols.

But, thanks to the wonderful corn lobby in D.C. you'd never know it.

You can thank them for the plethora of items sweetened/ruined with corn syrup instead of sugar as well...but that's a comment for another thread.

Lobbyists are the bane of our government, and unabated will finish ruining this country.

[Mildmannered]

thank them also for the increase in food prices

[AntiStrauss]

Net energy yield on corn ethanol production--125%
Net energy yield on gasoline production from oil--62%

What were you saying?

[Mildmannered]

sorghum

http://media-newswire.com/release_1069813.html

[Mildmannered]

algae -- see also

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/04/01/algae.oil/index.html

[YadaYada]

Sir Richard Branson stated on Larry King Live the other night that Virgin Airways has successfully test flown one of its jets at 30000 feet on aviation fuel produced from algae.

[sustainable]

Algae is the most exciting, but I would feel better with regular aviation fuel. You wouldn't want to be 10 k up and hit a snag with propulsion would you?

[eXcommunicate]

Where is HEMP on this list?

[DMSmith]

I've always felt that the 'bio-fuels vs food' argument was put there by the petroleum industry. It's a lie, as this shows. I drive my mercedes diesel on bio-diesel made locally from waste fryer oil from a potato chip factory - otherwise an industrial waste!

My engine runs BETTER by far on bio: increased acceleration and top end speed, smoother idle and increased mileage! Anyone driving a diesel should be using it NOW. In addition, it is not flamable or explosive and will not pollute the ground or water, so I can keep extra at home in 5 gal containers and fuel up at home as needed!! If I get over 100 gal. they will deliver it!

[KillTheMessenger]

Good for you. What you fail to notice is that the average American uses on the order of one gallon of fryer oil per year. Now, how many gallons do you put into your Benz? How many Americans have to eat freedom fries so you can drive unencumbered of a bad conscience?

[MaeScott]

You use the waste from all the chicken shacks, fish joints, and burger stands. What is currently being tossed away. It will take a variety of alternative fuels .

[einherjar]

KTM, you use what is locally available and would otherwise have to be disposed of as waste.

Nothing need be done except simple filtration to make it useable in your vehicle.

Resturants go through an amazing amount of oil on a regular basis. Some more than others depending on local health codes.

I would think using waste as a fuel would be a reasonable short term solution until viable long term solutions become more readily available, you know.....peak oil theory and all that

[VeggieCar]

Why is it us waste vegetable oil users get jumped on every time we comment here?? We are taking "garbage" and using it for fuel.

Not one of us has ever claimed WVO was the answer to our transportation liquid fuel problem. WVO is our personal solution for the short term. Thank goodness there's only a hand-full of us doing it, or the demand for WVO would go through the roof.

The vegetable oil produced from algae looks very promising, and DMSmith and I will be able to dump the raw product directly in our fuel tanks. Perhaps even grow & harvest it ourselves. Unlike the other, cellulosic ethanol solutions listed in the article, algae oil is very close to becoming commercially viable.

[truthynesslover]

Its going to get tossed anyway so whats your problem?At least its being used for something.

[sustainable]

how old is your car? There are models coming out all the time, but they never say you can use bio fuels with them.