[SGVLUG] Off-topic - alternative fuels - switchgrass ethanol

[Robert Leyva]

I read this one too, referencing a Scientific American article.

So, maybe in my lifetime things will look like the movie 'Sleeper' with
Woody Allen :)


> Ok, from slashdot.
>
> http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/11/1847256
>
> USDA and farmers took part in a 5-year study of switchgrass, a grass
> native to North America. The study found that switchgrass ethanol can
> deliver around 540 percent of the energy used to produce it, as
> opposed to corn ethanol which can only yield around 24 percent. "But
> even a native prairie grass needs a helping hand from scientists and
> farmers to deliver the yields necessary to help ethanol become a
> viable alternative to petroleum-derived gasoline, Vogel argues. 'To
> really maximize their yield potential, you need to provide nitrogen
> fertilization,' he says, as well as improved breeding techniques and
> genetic strains. 'Low input systems are just not going to be able to
> get the energy per acre needed to provide feed, fuel and fiber.'"
>
> So I guess that if we use switchgrass to produce ethanol i can get
> into supporting ethanol. But that will never happen because the corn
> farmers lobby is to strong.
>


-- 
"Knowledge is Power" -- Francis Bacon

Robert Leyva
mrflash818 at geophile.net