Concerns about global climate change and greenhouse gases are driving the big push toward biomass as a renewable fuel source.

Biofuels such as ethanol and methanol have near-zero emission of carbon dioxide, the major source of greenhouse gases. This is because the biomass from which they are made – plants such as corn or switchgrass – recycles the carbon dioxide released during fuel combustion.

Biofuel made from switchgrass could offer environmental and economic advantages. Environmentally, grasslands are sustainable agricultural systems that reduce soil erosion and contribute to improved water and air quality.

Economically, switchgrass could be a successful cash crop for marginal land, such as Conservation Reserve Program acres, that presently is unproductive. Switchgrass also has the potential to give much higher ethanol yields per acre than corn. The problem: biomass conversion plants are still largely in the research and development phase, although the first cellulose-to-ethanol plant is being built in Louisiana and two more are in the planning and financing stages.

–Monica Norby