Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Burn Grass, Get Green Biofuel

Posted by timothy on from the burn-timothy dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "Do you want to use an economical and environmentally friendly biofuel? Just grow grass. Burning grass pellets will produce an energy-efficient biofuel, according to Jerry Cherney, a professor of agriculture at Cornell University. In this news release, 'Grass as Fuel,' he says "Burning grass pellets makes sense; after all, it takes 70 days to grow a crop of grass for pellets, but it takes 70 million years to make fossil fuels." Unfortunately, there is nothing like a grass political lobby in Washington, so he might not be heard. But with current oil prices, more and more people will be tempted to use cheaper -- and cleaner -- sources of energy. This overview contains many more details and references about this environmentally friendly biofuel made from grass."

4 of 440 comments (clear)

  1. Duuuude... by nxtr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You'd know this if you weren't smoking it.

  2. Re:Conserve fuel for what we NEED it for. by wwahammy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes but that would require foresight beyond the next election cycle from our political leaders, something which is has been lacking even more lately.

  3. Already been done by Kohath · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My great grandfather had a mode of transportation that ran on grass.

  4. Re:Obvious marijuana jokes aside... by gwydion04 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Plants do not get the majority of their carbon from the ground. I quote from Wikipedia:
    "Plants are autotrophs, which means they are able to synthesize food directly from inorganic compounds, instead of eating other organisms or relying on material derived from them. Most notably, they use carbon dioxide gas and water to produce sugars and oxygen gas. The energy for these processes comes from photosynthesis. For instance, the over-all equation for the production of glucose is:

    12H2O + 6CO2 + light --> C6H12O6 (glucose) + 6O2 + 6H2O

    The glucose is variously used to form other organic compounds, such as the building material cellulose, or it may be used as a fuel."
    Cellulose = polysaccharide that makes up the majority of a plant's structure - i.e. what you would burn.

    Plants need only minerals and water from the ground - that's why you can grow them with hydroponics. Crack open that high school bio textbook before posting to avoid such future didatics from your fellow slashdotters. ;-)