Ceres to Trial Energy Crops at Range Fuels’s Facility
09 September 2008
Energy crop company Ceres, Inc. will trial improved switchgrass cultivars and high-biomass sorghum hybrids with Range Fuels, Inc. as part of a cooperative field trialing program at the site of Range Fuels’ commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant, now under construction near Soperton, Georgia, about 150 miles southeast of Atlanta.
While wood residues will be the primary feedstock for the Range Fuels biorefinery, Ceres said that Range Fuels is also interested in better understanding the economic, environmental and logistical attributes of non-food, low-carbon grass species in the production of cellulosic biofuels. These grass species have a number of advantages: they have relatively rapid breeding cycles, they are highly efficient at storing sunlight in the form of carbohydrates, and they are widely adapted.
Last spring, Ceres provided seed of new, high-yielding varieties that was planted in demonstration plots on Range Fuels’ Soperton Plant site. The crops will be assessed for several years.
Ceres recently announced that it will commercialize its first seed varieties under the trade name Blade Energy Crops. (Earlier post.)
Another good step by Range Fuels and associates.
Posted by: gr | 09 September 2008 at 12:04 PM
Another good step by Range Fuels and associates.
Posted by: gr | 09 September 2008 at 12:04 PM
There is not enough land area for producing the energy that the US now uses. No grass no trees can grow fast enough. The diversion of coal and natural gas to make liquid fuels can be accomplished with nuclear power plants that can be ordered from Canada and built in less than four years. ..HG..
Posted by: Henry Gibson | 09 September 2008 at 10:32 PM
The all or nothing at all view misses the point. If we can take all the one billion tons of biomass that the DOE and USDA estimate are available and what ever cellulose fuel crops that are practical and get even HALF the fuel that we now use for automobiles, we can reduce our oil imports dramatically. Saying that we can not do it all is just repeating the same thing over and over and does little good.
Posted by: sjc | 10 September 2008 at 12:16 AM
Saying (correctly) that the job cannot be done entirely on the supply side calls attention to the demand side, which has been neglected.
Posted by: Reality Czech | 10 September 2008 at 09:58 AM
That is the way to balance the equation. Reduce consumption and increase supply of sustainable renewable fuel. If all cars got twice the mileage and all the biomass were converted to fuel, we would go a long way to reducing imported oil significantly.
Posted by: sjc | 10 September 2008 at 10:23 PM