In the tall grass, researchers find energy alternative

CNetNews.com
July 30, 2008 2:23 PM PDT

A perennial grass that grows as tall as 13 feet, requires little to no fertilizer, and can be stored away in bales almost indefinitely could be the next hope for efficient ethanol production.

At least that's the thinking of researchers from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who have been field testing a sterile grass known as Miscanthus giganteus, a distant cousin of switchgrass. In a report released Wednesday, the researchers said that the biofuel crop proved in field tests to be significantly more productive than other crops like corn in producing biomass for ethanol--an alternative to gas.

"By using Miscanthus...we can produce ethanol using a lot less land than we're using at present doing this with corn," crop sciences professor Steven Long, who led the study, said during in a presentation of the research. His work will also appear in this month's journal Global Change Biology.

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