Eye on Agriculture - Biomass

Renewable energy is the talk of the town these days from the field to the energy industry ethanol and biodiesel have been at the forefront of conversation concerning Biomass energy however another area of the renewable fuel development is gaining momentum Bruce Folkedahl Sr Research Mgr EERC Cellulosic production of ethanol utilizes the rest of the plant the woody material that s left over say for instance the wood stalks or switch grass or prairie grass or wood from forest thinnings and that is converted into ethanol Dr Bruce Folkedahl the Senior Research Manager for the Energy and Environmental Research Center in Grand Forks says crops like Corn Soybeans and Canola have been the focus of biofuel development But with cellulosic ethanol other crops that aren t geared for human consumption are proving to be well suited for energy production Folkedahl We re utilizing a large portion of that corn and there s only certain areas you can grow in and we re starting to push the price up on that which is a food quality product and taking it out of the circulation for that product So we d like to take the bulk of it say the corn stover or the specially grown energy crops say switch grass and convert those into transportation fuels and leave the food grade corn alone Folkedahl says technology has taken important steps forward in biomass development and refinement but the U S is still years away from full fledge production Folkedahl We ll we re currently probably 15 to 20 years out from large volume production of cellulosic biomass And by large volume I mean ten fifteen twenty percent current consumption of transportation fuels What the science shows is that the U S is capable of growing our own fuel without completely competing with the crops that are also grown for food It s just a matter of time before the science catches up with the demand for energy With Your Eye On Agriculture Shaun Sipma KX News CAM13 SHOT Sports