Miscanthus grass an ideal biofuels source

CHAMPAIGN, Ill., July 31 (UPI) -- U.S. crop experts say they've discovered the giant perennial grass Miscanthus x giganteus can significantly outperform current biofuel sources.

In the largest field trial of its kind in the United States, University of Illinois researchers discovered using Miscanthus as a feedstock for ethanol production could significantly reduce the U.S. acreage dedicated to biofuels, while meeting government biofuels production goals.

The researchers led by Professor Stephen Long said using corn or switchgrass to produce enough ethanol to offset 20 percent of gasoline use would take 25 percent of current U.S. cropland out of food production. But obtaining the same amount of ethanol from Miscanthus would require only 9.3 percent of current agricultural acreage.

"What we've found with Miscanthus is that the amount of biomass generated each year would allow us to produce about 2 1/2 times the amount of ethanol we can produce per acre of corn," said Long, of the university's Institute for Genomic Biology and the editor of the journal Global Change Biology.

The new findings appear is the current issue of that journal.