State takes lead role in switchgrass research
BYLINE: ANNE PAINE {dcidc}Contact Anne Paine at apaine@tennessean.com or 259-8071.
Staff Writer
A cornstalk-high green plant called switchgrass is one of the great hopes to fuel vehicles in a way that's less dependent on foreign oil and more environmentally friendly — and Tennesseans' tax money is being invested to make it happen.
Tennessee is one of three hubs of the action nationwide, with $18 million in state money proposed for research and developing the grass into a biofuel. The federal Energy Department already has put in $4 million, with more expected in coming years.
Gov. Phil Bredesen has recommended an additional $40 million in state spending for a pilot processing plant to convert switchgrass, wood chips and other such products to ethanol for fuel.
It's an experiment — drivers can't fill up at the pump with switchgrass or run their lawn mowers with it. But so far, farmers who have planted the tall native grass like it.
"It's easy to grow," said Don Cox, a lifelong resident of Henry County who raises cattle, corn, soybeans and hay — and now, switchgrass — on his 300-acre farm. "There's more problems with corn and soybeans."
About 30 acres are knee-high in the thin green blades now, as part of a four-year pilot project.
The grass would be taller, but the freeze this year killed it back, he said. Still, the hardy plants sent new shoots up.
{}Financing is hurdle
A tall prairie plant with waving blades, switchgrass once made this state and country hospitable to bison and birds.
It lost out, however, to other grasses humans planted as they adjusted the land for crops and cattle.
Unlike corn and soybeans, switchgrass doesn't have to be planted each year, and it requires far fewer chemicals to grow, including fertilizer.
After President Bush mentioned switchgrass in his 2006 State of the Union address, the price of the seed doubled. Bredesen made $3.5 million available in grants and loans last year for biofuel development.
Joe Claxton, an official with the state Department of Economic and Community Development, said calls are plentiful from people wanting to build plants to process materials like switchgrass and corn into ethanol for mixing with gasoline, and also soybeans for turning into a product to mix with diesel.
He talked Tuesday to three people, each of whom wanted to build one or both, he said. The big hurdle is financing.
"It's just a wait-and-see game to see who makes it," he said.
{}Costs are still high
People have been making ethanol from corn for some time, but growing corn and converting it burn a lot of energy — rivaling the energy that must be invested to make gasoline. Making ethanol also uses up a crop that people and animals eat in abundance.
However, switchgrass and wood chips, neither of which has the ready sugar of corn, require more work to convert to fuel, and the costs are still high in an experimental process.
Federal and state money is aimed at research to find the best way to grow, transport and process switchgrass. The many questions under study include how much less in food crops would be harvested if legions of farmers started planting switchgrass instead.
Heading up the research efforts are Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, which are partners on the pilot project in which farmers are growing about 100 acres of switchgrass.
The federal Energy Department is funding this research, plus major work at the Idaho National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado.
For now, in this state, the grass bales are going to help fuel an Alabama coal-fired electricity generating plant, where a past Oak Ridge study showed burning switchgrass put less pollution in the air.
{}Plan could bring jobs
Bredesen's proposal is based on a plan to make the state a national leader in ethanol production from grassy and woody materials. It's projected to bring as many as 4,000 new jobs and $100 million in farm revenues to rural communities.
The legislature would have to approve the total $61 million the governor has requested.
"I'm not hearing much enthusiastic talk about it," said state Sen. Douglas Henry, D-Nashville, who serves on the Senate Finance Committee and has served as its chairman.
He said he wasn't taken with the idea but will learn more if it comes up for a vote.
Rep. Jimmy A. Eldridge, a Republican from Jackson who also is a farmer and insurance agent, said he's not hearing anything about the proposal.
"We all support looking for alternative energy sources. I just filled up for $2.84 a gallon, and I thought, 'Where is this going to stop?' " he said.
{}Now it's 'subsidized crop'
Tim Brannon also is involved in the pilot project, growing 15 acres of switchgrass on his 600-acre farm in Henry County. He likes it but sees drawbacks and promise.
Hauling soybeans and corn, for instance, is easy compared with the bulky bales of switchgrass, and transportation costs could scuttle the crop's future.
A nearby processing plant that pays a reasonable price is needed.
"It's one thing to be able to grow a crop," Brannon said. "It's another thing to have a market for it. Face it. Right now, this is a subsidized crop."
Still, he said, providing fuel that would reduce use of foreign oil would be "a feather in the cap of the American farmer."
{}More on switchgrass
* On the state's push on alternative fuels and switchgrass, go to
http://state.tn.us/environment/altfuels
* On biofuel and switchgrass from the University of Tennessee, go to:
* On U.S. Department of Energy bioenergy work:
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/bioenergy_center.html
{dcidc}Contact Anne Paine at apaine@tennessean.com or 259-8071.
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