“Corn-based ethanol is transitional,” says Dr. Larry Walker of Cornell University in what seemed to be an effort to euphemize. Dr. Walker and a team of researchers at Cornell are currently working on the biofuels that could replace corn-based ethanol.
In the short-term (as in, two to five years), Dr. Walker says switch grass provides the best hope for a market-viable form of cellulosic ethanol. (For a nice primer on switch grass, go to
www.switch-grass.com) For a couple of years, switch grass has been quasi-endorsed in environmental circles as the heir apparent to corn-based ethanol. Or at least, it seemed that way to me, but Dr. Walker cautioned not to assume too much.
“We’re not locked in to switch grass,” he explains. “Right now we’re trying to increase yields for perennial grasses. We’d like to double the yield per acre.”
If you’re wondering what the heck that means, think of it this way: If switch grass is going to become market viable, growers need to be able to get more out of each acre. Right now, researchers can grow five dry tons of switch grass per acre, and each dry ton can produce 80 gallons of ethanol. So right now, growers can get 400 gallons of cellulosic ethanol out of each acre of switch grass, but Dr. Walker would like to see that number grow to closer to 1,000.
While corn-based ethanol is clearly not the future of energy, Dr. Walker says it has taught researchers a lot about approaching other alternative energies. It’s also taught him that the government likes to hype technology and biofuels – even if they can’t deliver on the hype. That’s why Dr. Walker speaks carefully about what’s on the horizon.
Beyond switch grass, Dr. Walker pointed out that
algae is a hot idea in the scientific community.
Algae, he says, has lipids that can be converted to biodiesel. Researchers in New York state are not spending much time on it, but algae is earning long hours of study from researchers in California and Arizona.
Cold-tolerant sorghum is another product that excites Dr. Walker.
He shows a hint of frustration with government funding. That’s not to say that Dr. Walker is not appreciative of what he gets; he simply sees the government attaching itself to corn-based ethanol when it would be more productive to allow researchers to discover the best options for the market.
“R&D will improve the process and make things more efficient,” Dr. Walker says. “But there’s no single answer out there. There is a lot of research and we see many possibilities.”
