A perennial grass called Miscanthus has been discovered to be much more effective for creating ethanol than corn. The grass, which is native to subtropical and tropical regions of Africa and southern Asia, produces about twice as much biomass per acre without irrigation as other grasses. It is already used as an ornamental landscaping grass here in the US.
However, Somerville said Miscanthus-derived ethanol, which is distilled from the fermentation of sugars from the entire plant rather than just the grains, results in a higher yield per unit of land.
Miscanthus produces about twice as much biomass per acre without irrigation as other grasses, and reaching Bush’s target of 35 billion gallons of biofuels annually would require far fewer acres of land.
Although environmentalists say planting corn for ethanol production will lead to widespread deforestation, Somerville said Miscanthus could be planted on land currently used for food production.
What sounds the most interesting to me about this grass is that it takes much less water and fewer fertilizers to grow well, so you aren’t burning up a lot of resources just to make your biofuel. Critics of ethanol made from corn claim that you actually end up using so many resources to grow and harvest and turn the corn into ethanol that it uses up more energy than it creates.
