Tenessee Sipping Cellulosic

Switchgrass


Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) is a summer perennial grass that is native to North america. It is known as the tall-grass of the prairie.

The U.S. uses about 9.2 million barrels (219,000 gallons) of Finished Motor Gasoline a day. Automobile engines can run on an E10 blend, i.e., fuel that is 10% ethanol, with the only difference, a barely discernible reduction in mileage. “Regular” gasoline has a value of 85-92 g CO2 eq / MJ, while cellulosic ethanol, when derived from municipal solid waste, has a value of about 5 g CO2 eq / MJ. Ethanol from switchgrass will produce more CO2 eq / MJ than. When coal is added the profile can be worse than regular gasoline.

As recently commented about the GCC report that there are approximately 4.5 million E85 capable motor vehicles now on American roads. If that many vehicles were operating on an E-85 blend, with ethanol made from cellulosic feedstock — Okeelanta bagasse or otherwise, then Americans might be able to make some claim to responsible action toward the mitigation of climate change.

Comparison of CO2 Emissions between Alternative Fuels

Autoblog Green1 relays an announcement from Mascoma Corporation about the five-million-gallon-a-year cellulosic ethanol Tennessee plant to open in 2009. The company intends that this facility be the first in the country to produce cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass.

Mascoma’s partner in the plant is the University of Tennessee, which has been conducting research that suggests “that Tennessee is capable of generating over one billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol from switchgrass alone.”

Business Wire

Entrained Flow Gasifier Schematic


Entrained Flow Gasifier Schematic

Note that while the research was with switchgrass alone, the push is for relatively small amounts of cellulosic feedstock mixed with a coal slurry. With East Tennessee in the Eastern coal belt, it would be difficult to imagine that this effort is something other than another CBTL (Coal / Biomass To Liquids) greenwash.

This blog previously noted that Mascoma has been the recipient of several grants as part of the Biomass Biofuels Initiative. ABG has reported their plans for cellulosic ethanol plants in Michigan and in New York.

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