Innovation Pipeline

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers think miscanthus could pack a special punch for the biofuel world.

The giant perennial grass is a lignocellulosic feedstock. It offers an alternative energy source outside of the controversial food category of plants like corn.

A dozen or more companies are currently building or operating plants in the U.S. to produce ethanol from nonedible plants or lignocellulosic feedstocks.

Miscanthus could conceivably be used as a feedstock for ethanol production in the U.S. And that could translate into less agricultural acreage devoted to biofuel energy sources.

Miscanthus is unique in that it’s capable of producing about 2.5 times the amount of ethanol produced by an acre of corn. It would go a long way in helping the U.S. reach its stated goal of 20-percent replacement of gas with biofuels.

Miscanthus has another advantage over corn: it tolerates poor soil. All of this points toward sustainable energy sources that help put corn-ethanol biofuels out of the picture.

But the researchers said miscanthus is far from being the golden biofuel source. Among the challenges is that the plant is a sterile hybrid. That means it has to be propagated by planting stems, called rhizomes. And that takes a lot of time.

But in Europe, miscanthus has been grown for more than a decade and specially designed farm equipment is able to plant about 50 acres of Miscanthus rhizomes a day. –Lee Bruno