Switchgrass Science
Transcript
Partners 20-Fueling America
Switchgrass Science
Burt English – University of Tennessee
Switchgrass is a perennial plant. It is planted once. It grows in place for 10 to 15 years … it grows about to 6 feet tall, maybe 8. Yield is about 10 per acre and that’s without any genetic manipulation.
It is native to the United States. It’s part of the mixed prairie grass system that used to be here... It’s native from Colorado to the Coast, and from Alabama up through Canada.
Narrator
Burt English and his colleagues at the University of Tennessee are fascinated by switchgrass because of its potential as a biomass source for ethanol production. But for most refinery operations today, corn is being used to produce ethanol. Critics argue that it might not be the best choice. As the grain’s price soars due to biofuel demand, so does the cost of corn-based foods. And U.S. corn exports are also threatened due to the fast-rising prices.
But beyond the economics, there is simply not enough corn to meet the energy demands of the future.
Burt English
Corn has a place, but it is limited. If you look at the total energy needs for this country, corn can probably fill 16 to maybe even 18 billion gallons of ethanol. But we need 86 billion gallons or more ethanol to come from renewable sources. And to meet that demand, we need at least two and a half times as much corn than we grow in this nation - just for ethanol.
Narrator
Scientists are now looking to other fast-growing biomass sources for fueling America, especially those that provide large amounts of cellulosic matter for ethanol production. Switchgrass fits the bill.
Burt English
Seven foot - one.
Narrator
This wild grass has a lot of advantages for the farmer and the environment.
Burt English
You don’t have to reseed it every year. You don’t have to use the tractor planting cultivating. After two years, you probably don’t have to use any chemicals on the plant. It grows and out competes anything in the field. It’s a low- input, low-fertilizer plant and you can use ordinary hay equipment to harvest it.
Narrator
But much needs to be learned about switchgrass for it to become a profitable, cultivatable crop. And that’s what researchers are learning to do here at this University of Tennessee experiment station in Milan. Different varieties are grown under different conditions and types of terrain --from flat fields, to sloped ones, to semi marshy. The color contrast here shows the effects of this experimentation.
Burt English
In addition we are looking at nitrogen tests going from 0 to 180 pounds.
We’ve been doing some weed experiments on switchgrass to see which herbicides would work. When you have grass growing and competing with switchgrass, it’s very difficult to control that annual grass. And we are working on those types experiments with Larry Steckle.
Narrator
Soil is another major component of the study, and is headed up by researcher Don Tyler. Since switchgrass is a perennial, that offers a unique advantage to the farmer.
Burt English
You’re not disturbing the soil for 10 or 15 years. You’re adding root matter to that soil, and that’s converted to organic matter. So there is some enrichment of the soil. We’re trying to calculate how much of that is occurring right now in this very field here.
Narrator
But once these field studies are concluded, switchgrass for ethanol production still faces a number of other challenges, especially when one considers how much of it needs to be produced to meet the need.
Burt English
The logistics of getting millions of acres in switchgrass are tremendous. You need seed and you need reliable seed. We need seed companies looking at this and staring to develop the mechanism in which these fields that we have in the United States start producing seed for them.
And we need also plant improvement. We need yield increase. The more yield per acre, the more ethanol per acre, and I think that is going to be critical as we go down the road in the long run looking at the food versus fuel versus feed issue.
Narrator
In the short run, however, things look promising for switchgrass. As part of the research, several Tennessee farmers are growing the crop on test plots on their own land. And soon, they will have a market for their harvest.
Burt English
In Tennessee, we have a facility being planned right now that will be producing five million gallons of ethanol from switchgrass and from wood.
By 2010, we will have it. It won’t be commercially feasible by then, but by 2012, I believe it will be. We grow cellulose very well here. Having switchgrass as an alternative crop will provide the farmers another source of income and allow them to, I think, compete at a better level.