Fill 'er up: Will that be ethanol or switchgrass, sir?

Gasoline. Diesel. Bio-diesel. Ethanol. E10. E85. Compressed air. Hydrogen fuel cell. Switchgrass. Miscanthus. Reclaimed cooking oil. Plug-in electricity. Lithium-ion batteries. Which of the above will not be the preferred source of fueling our RVs in a decade? If you said gasoline, you are right. At least in its present, unadulterated form.

Already some states (CA, MN, and others) require ethanol to be mixed with gasoline to reduce both the emission of greenhouse gasses (GHG) into the atmosphere and also to reduce our demand for foreign oil from unstable countries. As the price of oil rises, the urgency to develop (read: venture capital) alternate sources of energy heats up.

The first step was the development of the ethanol additive, derived from corn, mixed with gasoline. This is a step, but not the ultimate answer. The advantages are: reduction in oil usage, cleaner burning, and less pollutants. Why it isn’t the answer: reduced miles-per-gallon, using a food crop for fuel drives up the price of food, subsidies paid by the government to corn growers should be going to growers of better feedstocks (the source crop) such as switchgrass and miscanthus, and besides, we can’t grow enough corn in this country to meet our fuel requirements.

But why switchgrass? And what is it? Switchgrass is a native prairie grass that can grow to twice human height, and unlike using just the ears of corn, the entire plant can be used to produce fuel. This type of feedstock is called celulosic, where instead the woody part of the plant is used to make ethanol, and includes corn stalks (stover) and rice husks among others. Switchgrass can be grown on marginal land, requires little if any fertilizer or pesticides, less water, requires only mowing to harvest, the energy output is far greater than food feedstocks, and the resultant fuel produces far less pollutants and GHG. And it would be a boon to small family farmers.

Misanthus is another celulosic feedstock, native to Europe, though sterile plants have been produced reducing the threat of rampant alien plants. Misanthus produces a sizeable increase over switchgrass.

To use these new ethanol blends, however, requires a flex fuel car if you are to use anything over E10 (10% ethanol). Many flex fuel cars are now being produced, but fueling stations offering blends over E10 and up to E85 or better need to proliferate first before these blends will catch on.

Next Saturday: More on fuels