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Tall, Hardy Grass May Be Energy Crop of the Future
When the first European settlers arrived in North America, switchgrass grew widely within the eastern two-thirds of what is now the United States, parts of Mexico, and Southern Canada. Millions of acres of the tall perennial grass and other species like it produced the prairies of the Great Plains. Those vast grasslands largely disappeared under the plow as farmers moved west, but switchgrass may still have a future as long as researchers seek alternative energy crops.
“In 1985, with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), we began looking at switchgrass and five other non-woody species that might be used to produce biofuels,” says David Parrish, professor of crop and soil environmental sciences. “That DOE effort was the first study done on switchgrass as an energy crop. The initial work, which continued with DOE support through the 1990s, made it clear that switchgrass has great potential as an energy crop. Today, we are still looking at ways to best establish and manage it.”
A new, five-year grant from the DOE looks at switchgrass productivity under different management techniques. Virginia Tech is a partner in the study to optimize nitrogen fertilization, which has economic and environmental importance.
“Once we have the stand well-established, we will apply nitrogen fertilizer at different rates on the 15-acre test site in Gretna, Va.,” says John Fike, associate professor of crop and soil environmental sciences. Researchers expect this work to show that switchgrass can be produced in Virginia with levels of applied nitrogen much lower than would be used for corn, for example.
With more than 20 years of experience under their belts, Virginia Tech researchers are looking at switchgrass from many angles. They are partnering with the University of Tennessee to determine the optimum window of time for planting. They are working with a California-based firm to develop new switchgrass cultivars. And they are studying how to use switchgrass as a dual-purpose crop for forage and biofuels.
“Switchgrass is a brand new crop with less than half a century devoted to its domestication,” Parrish explains. “We know a whole lot more about how to grow corn and wheat than we do about this species.”
Several Virginia Tech projects compare switchgrass to other biomass sources. The Virginia Agriculture Council and the Powell River Project are funding a study to compare feedstock species at several locations around the state, including on reclaimed mine land. Fike, Parrish, and Benjamin Tracy, associate professor of crop and soil environmental sciences, also received funding from the Virginia Agriculture Council to determine the productivity of switchgrass grown alone and with other native plants.
Although much of the university’s switchgrass research relies on adapting centuries-old principles of agronomy, some of it uses biotechnology and genomics. Bingyu Zhao, assistant professor of horticulture, is using these new tools to improve the crop’s biomass production and resistance to biological, environmental, and other stresses.
Switchgrass uses less fertilizer than corn, another possible bioenergy crop, and acts as a cover for soil, thereby reducing soil erosion. John Galbraith, associate professor of crop and soil environmental sciences, is also testing the effectiveness of switchgrass and similar crops at carbon sequestration – the process of storing carbon in the soil to reduce greenhouse gas emission and improve soil quality.
Although widely considered a good possibility as an alternative feedstock for biofuels, Virginia Tech researchers are still trying to determine whether they can reproduce the high yields reported at research plots on a large scale. John Cundiff, professor of biological systems engineering, is looking at the logistics of harvesting, storing, and transporting round bales of switchgrass.
Nationally, switchgrass has generated a considerable amount of attention in recent years. In his 2006 State of the Union address, President Bush mentioned switchgrass as a possible biofuels crop, a boon for Virginia Tech’s Department of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences, where biofuels research on this crop began two decades ago.
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| Virginia Tech researchers are adapting existing farming technology to harvest and transport switchgrass in round bales. |
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