Comments on: In the tall grass, researchers find energy alternative

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers say that a sterile grass known as Miscanthus giganteus proved to be significantly more productive than other biofuel crops like corn in the making of ethanol.

[Michael too]

I wonder how Kudzu works as a bio-fuel source?

[CptAhab]

It's apparently the stems that are the best source of carbs, but they are also apparently difficult to extract from the ground. That said, it's exciting to see how quickly these technologies are progressing. I have no doubt that ethanol will be playing a significant role in our national energy future.

[mgoeckner]

"field testing a sterile grass"

I am sorry - but how is a grass sterile?

[knobsturner]

What about hemp? A comparison against this would be nice. The promoters of it seem impressed, but i don't know how it stacks up against Miscanthus. Hemp is legal to grow in almost every country on earth. --Tom

[Conservative08]

To compare switchgrass, Miscanthus, and industrial hemp go to the website
http://www.leegen.ie/agridev/crop_miscanthus.asp.

[fafafooey]

"I am sorry - but how is a grass sterile?"

Most likely, it means that the seeds are sterile, in that they won't grow more grass and therefore it will not spread any further than the acreage that was seeded.

[JimmBeam]

This is a very encouraging development. I hear switchgrass ethanol is even more efficient than corn ethanol. Either way, we absolutely need to be integrating more clean, renewable, American ethanol into our energy plan.

[diya1232]

Miscanthus x giganteus is a hybrid (much like the commercial banana) and so does not produce seeds at all.

[HeathKennie]

right on. making a move to invest in alternative energies and biofuels - particularly ethanol - is the way to beat this energy crisis we find ourselves in.

[SlimGem]

I wonder how the wild prairie grasses that used to cover the North American plains would work as a biofuel. I guess it doesn't matter since most of that land is planted in wheat and corn now.

[sfj4076]

Even better, we can use this extraordinary high-yielding grass in combination with existing commercial off the shelf process technologies to produce infrastructure-compatible ultra-clean synthetic FT diesel and jet fuel. This eliminates the requirement to develop a whole new cellulosic ethanol process to convert the grass to fuel, and the need to adapt all the downstream infrastructure to accept ethanol (not to mention getting better mileage per gallon)

Such a facility is currently under development just 30 miles south of where the Miscanthus research is being conducted, near the small town of Oakland Illinois.

Stephen Johnson, Illinois Clean Fuels