Ithaca, New York
March 31, 2005
Grow grass, not for
fun but for fuel. Burning grass for energy has been
a well-accepted technology in Europe for decades. But not in the
United States.
Yet burning grass pellets as a biofuel is economical,
energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and sustainable, says
a Cornell University forage
crop expert.
This alternative fuel easily could be produced and pelleted by
farmers and burned in modified stoves built to burn wood pellets
or corn, says Jerry Cherney, the E.V. Baker Professor of
Agriculture. Burning grass pellets hasn't caught on in the
United States, however, Cherney says, primarily because
Washington has made no effort to
support the technology with subsidies or research dollars.
"Burning grass pellets makes sense; after all, it takes 70 days
to grow a crop of grass for pellets, but it takes 70 million
years to make fossil fuels," says Cherney, who notes that a
grass-for-fuel crop could help supplement farmers' incomes.
Cherney presented the case for grass biofuel at a U.S.
Department of Agriculture-sponsored
conference, Greenhouse Gases and Carbon Sequestration in
Agriculture and Forestry, held March 21-24 in Baltimore.
"Grass pellets have great potential as a low-tech, small-scale,
renewable energy system that can be locally produced, locally
processed and locally consumed, while having a positive impact
on rural communities," Cherney told the conference.
The downside? "Unfortunately grass has no political lobby, which
makes the start up of any new alternative energy industry
problematic," says Cherney. He notes that a pellet-fuel industry
was successfully established in Europe by providing subsidies to
the industry. And even though the ratio of the amount of energy
needed to produce grass pellets to the amount of energy they
produce is much more favorable than for other biomass crops, the
lack of government support prevents the industry from going
forward, he says.
Cherney has made a comparison of wood pellets with various mixes
of grasses and the BTUs (British Thermal Units) produced per
pound. He has found that grass pellets can be burned without
emissions problems, and they have 96 percent of the BTUs of wood
pellets. He also notes that grass produces more ash than wood --
meaning more frequent cleaning -- of stoves. Currently, he is
testing the burning of pellets made from grasses, such as
timothy and orchard grass, as well as weeds, such as goldenrod,
in pellet stoves at Cornell's Mt. Pleasant Research Farm. This
demonstration project is funded by Cornell's Agricultural
Experiment Station.
Cherney points out that grass biofuel pellets are much better
for the environment because they emit up to 90 percent less
greenhouse gases than oil, coal and natural gas do. Furthermore,
he says, grass is perennial, does not require fertilization and
can be grown on marginal farmland.
"Any mixture of grasses can be used, cut in mid- to late summer,
left in the field to leach out minerals, then baled and
pelleted. Drying of the hay is not required for pelleting,
making the cost of processing less than with wood pelleting,"
says Cherney. "The bottom line is that pelletized grass has the
potential to be a major affordable, unsubsidized fuel source
capable of meeting home and small business heating requirements
at less cost than all available alternatives."
Related World Wide Web sites
The following site provide additional information on this news
release. Some might not be part of the Cornell University
community, and Cornell has no control over their content or
availability:
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/cherney.html |