MSU lets “Freedom” ring as viable biofuel feedstock

Mississippi State University
By Patti Drapala
MSU Ag Communications

MISSISSIPPI STATE – Collaboration between a Mississippi State University research agronomist and Georgia’s self-proclaimed “sodfather” may offer the Southeast the “Freedom” of a viable grassy feedstock to capitalize on sustainable bioenergy production.

One focus of MSU’s research is giant miscanthus, or Miscanthus x giganteus, a warm-season Asian grass that many scientists believe has potential as a biomass crop for fuel. Researchers with the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station have been studying grassy biomass feedstocks for 12 years. Team leader Brian Baldwin went a step further in isolating, identifying and selecting a genotype of this species that fits agricultural production systems of Southeastern farmers.

Baldwin’s investigation culminated in the Freedom cultivar, which is uniquely suited to the South. Production of foundation stock for this grass has been licensed to turfgrass magnate Phillip Jennings of Soperton, Ga., who has incorporated his ideas about alternative energy into a new business venture, SunBelt Biofuels.

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