Grasses Better Than Corn For Ethanol Production, Says New Study | Illinois Public Media (2024)

FAQs

Grasses Better Than Corn For Ethanol Production, Says New Study | Illinois Public Media? ›

New research from the University of Illinois shows producing ethanol from grasses rather than corn could significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. without affecting food production. The grasses -- Miscanthus and switchgrass -- grow year-after-year without replanting and require less fertilizer than corn.

What you will see is grass -- switchgrass. Unlike corn, using the cellulose in switchgrass to make ethanol requires less energy from fossil fuels. Furthermore, cellulose ethanol contains more energy than corn ethanol, so there's a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Today, nearly all ethanol produced in the world is derived from starch- and sugar-based feedstocks. The sugars in these feedstocks are easy to extract and ferment, making large-scale ethanol production affordable. Corn is the leading U.S. crop and serves as the feedstock for most domestic ethanol production.

Cellulosic Production

Making ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks—such as grass, wood, and crop residues—is a more involved process than using starch-based crops. There are two primary pathways to produce cellulosic ethanol: biochemical and thermochemical.

Researchers have discovered an important clue in the quest to make more biofuel from switchgrass—one which could (speculatively) boost its biomass by over 50% and help accelerate the departure from fossil fuels.

Along with its impressive biomass yield, switchgrass embodies other valuable qualities. It can grow in varied environments and requires less fertilizer than row crops like corn (and, in some environments, little or no fertilizer at all).

Critics believe that widespread production of ethanol will result in more land being used to grow corn for fuel rather than for food. They also believe that producing and using ethanol actually does more harm to the environment than good.

On average, one acre of corn can produce approximately 551 gallons of ethanol. This is equivalent to about 386 gallons of gasoline.

The United States is the world's largest producer of ethanol, having produced over 15 billion gallons in 2021 and 2022. Together, the United States and Brazil produce 80% of the world's ethanol. The vast majority of U.S. ethanol is produced from corn, while Brazil primarily uses sugarcane.

He said California beets are expected to garner some 1200 gallons of ethanol per acre (or almost twice the amount of a typical corn crop).

Is corn or sugarcane better for ethanol? ›

Using existing technologies, an acre of sugar cane produces almost twice as much ethanol as an acre of corn.

Higher-ethanol blends still produce significant levels of air pollution, reduce fuel efficiency, jack up corn and other food prices, and have been treated with skepticism by some car manufacturers for the damage they do to engines. Growing corn to run our cars was a bad idea 10 years ago.

A research team led by scientists from Argonne National Laboratory, the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and Northern Illinois University has discovered a new electrocatalyst that can consistently convert carbon dioxide and water into ethanol with very high energy efficiency and low cost ...

Grass crops could be used to produce liquid fuel – It's a fact! As well as being baled and burnt to generate energy or heat, grasses could also be broken down by microorganisms to produce liquid fuel.

For the production of bioethanol, the most suitable energy crops are species rich in sugars, such as sugar cane, sugar beet, corn, sweet sorghum, oats, barley, and rye.

There is increasing interest in using grasses as a biofuel source. Grasses grow quickly, produce a large amount of biomass per unit growing area and leave only small amounts of residue when they are burned. Typically, grasses are burned to produce heat and steam to power turbines in conventional power plants.

Switchgrass and other plants could serve as an excellent alternative to high impact crops like corn.

Switchgrass yields more than 540 percent more energy than the energy needed to produce and convert it to ethanol, making the grassy weed a far superior source for biofuels than corn ethanol, reports a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Most of the fuel ethanol produced around the world is made by fermenting the sugar in the starches of grains such as corn, sorghum, and barley, and the sugar in sugar cane and sugar beets. Denaturants are added to ethanol to make fuel ethanol undrinkable.