Getting that switchgrass or other biomass to the refinery will be expensive and difficult.
Now a lot of switchgrass has been through the mill, so to speak.
As a bonus, switchgrass ethanol emits significantly fewer greenhouse gases than corn-based ethanol.
But the long-term prospects for biomass are best with non-food based feedstocks such as switchgrass, wood chips and forest residues.
In contrast, ethanol derived from sugar cane has return on energy invested of roughly 1.8x, while using switchgrass gets you 5x.
Switchgrass contains cellulose, the starting material that, with enough heat and the right enzymes and chemicals, can be made into ethanol fuel.
Being a perennial, farmers don't have to reseed switchgrass after harvesting it.
The appealing idea is that native plants like switchgrass and agricultural leftovers like wheat straw and corn stover could be turned into ethanol.
What is interesting is that the conversions of biomass (e.g. switchgrass and salicornia) to synthetic diesel using Fischer-Tropsch (F-T.) and coal to liquids with F.
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The first biorefinery for switchgrass ethanol has yet to be built.
The appealing idea is that plants native to the U.S., like switchgrass, and agricultural leftovers like wheat straw and corn stover could be turned into ethanol.
"We'll also fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn but from wood chips and stalks and switchgrass, " the president promised.
Fuel it with 85 percent ethanol made from woody, weedy stuff like switchgrass, and you'll save three-fourths of the remaining oil without interfering with food production.
Indeed, Kelli Roberts, another researcher at Cornell, told the meeting that, taking all factors into account, growing switchgrass for biochar may do more harm than good.
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Growing such crops as switchgrass not only absorbs carbon, but also produces a fuel that some power plants can use instead of oil, coal or gas.
And the low energy density of biomass--corn, switchgrass, wood, etc.
For American motorists, that something better is cellulosic ethanol an alcohol made from straw, leaves, stalks, cane or, best of all, switchgrass, a hardy perennial that grows prolifically almost anywhere.
But the key going forward is going to be, can we create biofuels out of switchgrass and wood chips and other materials that right now are considered waste materials?
Made from corn stalks, switchgrass and other plant waste, it has the advantage of not competing with the food supply and also boasts a superior energy balance than corn-based ethanol.
The 2007 Bush-Pelosi energy bill required blending fuels that can allegedly be made from switchgrass or farm waste into the gasoline supply, though no companies produced the product at a commercial scale.
Biofuels Watch, a British lobby group, worries that a craze for the stuff could see virgin land tilled specifically to grow crops such as switchgrass, whose only purpose was to be pyrolised and buried.
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The microbe, discovered by microbiologists from the University of Massachusetts at the Quabbin Reservoir in western Massachusetts, digests and ferments a wide variety of feedstocks, including corn stover, corn cobs, switchgrass, and sugar cane bagasse.
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It would be better if we can get farmers to work with industry to figure out whether we can use woodchips or algae or switchgrass or other biomass that can create fuel that is competitive with gasoline.
Predicting a breakthrough in switchgrass-based ethanol technology in 2007, the Bush administration mandated that cellulosic, or plant-cell based, ethanol production for American autos increase to 500 million gallons by 2012 and a staggering 16 billion by 2022.
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But Big Oil, Big Ethanol and tiny start-ups like Verenium have all failed to meet federal mandates for so-called advanced biofuels, fuels produced with agricultural waste or dedicated fuel crops like switchgrass instead of from edible grains like corn.
Many new initiatives in the bill fund research and programs for farm-based biofuels, including everything from making methane out of cow manure to planting switchgrass and especially, growing corn to make ethanol, which has been promoted as a means toward energy independence.
Although the process to produce ethanol from switchgrass was more complex than using food crops such as wheat or corn, the so-called "second generation" biofuel could produce much higher energy yields per tonne because it utilised the whole plant rather than just the seeds.
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