Sentences with word «switchgrass»

Because so little energy is required to cultivate crops such as switchgrass for cellulosic ethanol production, and because electricity can be co-produced using the residues of such cellulosic fuel production, reductions in greenhouse gas emissions for celluslosic ethanol when compared to gasoline are greater than 100 per cent.

Compared with rows of maize, tufts of switchgrass grown for biofuel have hidden perks, a new study finds.

After crunching the numbers, Vogel and his colleagues found that ethanol produced from switchgrass yields 540 % of the energy used to grow, harvest, and process it into ethanol.

A sustainable biofuels industry will mean that farmers must make very localized decisions, growing switchgrass on one plot of land and poplars on another.

Isolation and characterization of N2 - fixing bacteria from giant reed and switchgrass for plant growth promotion and nutrient uptake — Jia Xu — Journal of Basic Microbiology

Faster - growing root systems could allow new plants to take hold more quickly, including perennial grasses like switchgrass and Miscanthus, which are considered viable feedstocks for next - generation biofuel.

As you may recall, President G.W. Bush touted ethanol made from plant cellulose such as switchgrass in his 2006 state of the union address.

The National Commission on Energy Policy reported in December that, if fleet mileage in the U.S. rises to 40 mpg — somewhat below the current European Union fleet average for new vehicles of 42 mpg and well below the current Japanese average of 47 mpg - then as switchgrass yields improve modestly to around 10 tons / acre it would take only 30 million acres of land to produce sufficient cellulosic ethanol to fuel half the U.S. passenger fleet.

The OurPets Company, based in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, launched Switchgrass Natural Cat Litter with Biochar.

Emissions produced from using switchgrass bioethanol would be roughly 94 % lower than those from gasoline - making it almost carbon neutral.

Plastic containers, each filled with about 5.5 pounds of soil, were planted with switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) seeds.

In addition, producing and burning switchgrass ethanol releases 94 percent less greenhouse gas than burning gasoline does, the researchers found.

Farmers planted switchgrass on 10 farms, each of which was between 3 and 9 hectares.

The company's technology platform, based on identifying promising cellulose genes, transforming crop plants with candidate genes, and evaluating the effects on growth, yield, and cellulose hydrolysis would be applicable to a variety of energy crops including switchgrass, sorghum, and sugar cane.

Fertilizer, pesticides, and herbicides applied during switchgrass production carry additional carbon costs, from fossil fuels used in their manufacture (Schlesinger 2010), transportation, and application.

Farmed switchgrass can be grown on millions of hectares of marginal land ill suited for agricultural crops.

But farmers might consider switchgrass...

That's the conclusion of a new study that shows that ethanol derived from corn and switchgrass allows cars to drive farther and emit less greenhouse gases if these crops are converted to electricity for powering electric vehicles rather than pouring the ethanol into the gas tank.

A bioenergy field trial in Wisconsin is evaluating how switchgrass, Miscanthus, corn stover, poplar trees, and native prairie grasses stack up against each other.

«Switchgrass removes PCBs from soils, engineers find.»

Previous studies on switchgrass plots suggested that ethanol made from the plant would yield anywhere from 343 % to 700 % of the energy put into growing the crop and processing it into biofuel.

In this paper in ISME Journal, Hiras et al. (doi: 10.1038 / ismej.2015.158) adapted a microbial consortium to grow on ionic - liquid pretreated switchgrass as its sole carbon source.

They proceeded to test the E. coli strain using ionic - liquid pretreated switchgrass provided by the DOE's Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Demonstration Unit (ABPDU), a biofuels facility at Berkeley Lab launched in 2011 to accelerate the commercialization of biofuels.

Planting perennial crops such as switchgrass near creeks increased greenhouse gas mitigation, water quality, beneficial insects and energy production, though it decreased total net income of farms in the study area by roughly $ 30 million.

Switchgrass BECS would require at least 2 × 108 ha of land (20 times U.S. area currently under bioethanol production) and 20 Tg y − 1 of nitrogen (20 % of global fertilizer nitrogen production), consuming 4 × 1012 m3 y − 1 of water.

Techniques for converting fast - growing, fibrous crops like poplar and switchgrass into fermentable sugars are still in development and are currently too expensive.

In a recent reality check, scientists estimated what it would take to sequester 1 billion tonnes of carbon using BECCS based on switchgrass feedstock.

High - biomass perennial crops such as miscanthus and switchgrass offer excellent longer - term potential,» he added.

They will produce the same oil whether they are converting sugar cane, switchgrass cellulosics, or waste glycerol.

• Ethanol production using switchgrass required 50 % more fossil energy than the ethanol fuel produced.

The planters hold switchgrass and big bluestem grass.

By 2030 the Department of Energy envisions American farmers harvesting fields of switchgrass purely for their energy content.

And though the babassu palm grows wild in Brazil — not unlike switchgrass, a native perennial grass that might be used for ethanol in North America — there may not be enough of it to slake much of commercial aviation's thirst for fuel.

Corn and sugarcane are well - established sources of biofuel, but algae are more efficient than either — more efficient even than much - touted switchgrass.

The furfural and p - anisaldehyde derived ionic liquids performed best with both providing 90 — 95 % glucose and 70 — 75 % xylose yields from switchgrass after 72 hours incubation with digestive enzymes.

But field studies in the Midwest suggest that planting native switchgrass, with a few other plant species thrown in for good measure, could actually help restore the grassland ecosystems that once covered the middle of the continent.

Midwestern farms prove switchgrass could be the right crop for producing ethanol to replace gasoline

New switchgrass shoots stopped growing, but stayed green and alive; the researchers referred to this as stagnation.

Also, the presence of switchgrass appeared to facilitate the microorganism's survival in the soil.

The researchers report that switchgrass successfully removed up to 40 percent of the PCBs from contaminated soils in lab experiments.

Typically, the enzymes tapped to help turn switchgrass, corn stover (corn stalks, leaves and other leftovers) and poplar into biofuels amount to about 20 percent of production costs, said Chundawat, whose department is in the School of Engineering.

The impressive yield numbers, he adds, will likely serve as a baseline for future studies, because agricultural scientists are making rapid strides at creating new, higher - yielding switchgrass strains.

After treating a common cellulosic biofuels plant called switchgrass with a compound known as an ionic liquid (IL) to break apart the plant fibers and reduce the lignin, the researchers added their engineered E. coli.

«It's a prediction because right now there are no biorefineries built that handle cellulosic material» like that which switchgrass provides, Vogel notes.

And in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team reported that their E. coli could grow on IL - treated switchgrass and generate all three fuels.

For instance, compared with maize fields, at switchgrass plots, methane consumption jumped by an order of magnitude and bird sightings doubled.