Biofuel potential for commercially grown grass

Grass from the western counties of Britain could soon rival oil seed rape and wheat from the eastern counties as a source of biofuel for cars, scientists have said.

Commercially grown grasses – sown by farmers instead of less productive natural grasses – could produce more fuel per acre than wheat or oil seed rape and roughly the same as sugar beet, according to scientists from the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research.
But it could do so more cheaply than the arable crops if the grass was grown with clover, which fixes nitrogen from the air, as the grasses would not need fertiliser.

Dr Iain Donnison, from the institute based in Aberystwyth said that technology already existed to make the sugars contained in commercial strains of perennial ryegrass grown by beef and dairy farmers into bioethanol instead of being fermented as silage to feed cows.

Some two-thirds of Britain’s agricultural land is grassland and the development of biofuels from fermented grass sugars could provide an alternative income for livestock farmers faced with problems of animal disease or low milk prices and protect the traditional farming landscape, he said.

Telegraph