Polk County farmer Harry Rymer could have grown corn this year, benefiting from grain’s skyrocketing price, but the weathered 60-year-old had his eyes on a more experimental crop.
Of Mr. Rymer’s 65 acres, 58 are being planted with switchgrass, a warm-season prairie grass, for research that could provide a fuel alternative to fossil fuels and corn ethanol.
“I paid $4.20 per gallon for diesel and I sure hope (switchgrass) helps that out,” he said. “We need to do something to get our price of fuel down, and I hope this does it.”
Corn ethanol has been touted as the emerging substitute to fossil fuels but, while a corn alternative could quell American dependence on foreign oil, some say the federal ethanol mandate has pushed up food prices.
In the meantime, the University of Tennessee and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory are researching cellulosic ethanol developed from plants not used as food, such as switchgrass or pine trees, and researchers say they are closer to refining cellulosic ethanol on a large scale.
“Switchgrass is not competing with land used to produce primary food crops,” said Dr. Kelly Tiller, director of external operations for the Tennessee Biofuels Initiative. “In the long run, this is a better fit for marginal crop land and underutilized land.”
Since 2007, nearly a quarter of a billion state and federal dollars have been poured into cellulosic ethanol production, making Tennessee a hotbed for biomass ethanol research, said Dr. Tiller.
Dr. David Millhorn, executive vice president and chief operating officer at the University of Tennessee, said the partnership between UT and the Oak Ridge lab is a major driver for new biofuels to replace oil as an energy source.
“We’ve got the largest biofuels program in the country right now between Oak Ridge and the university,” Dr. Millhorn said earlier this week during this year’s Tennessee Valley Corridor summit in Huntsville, Ala. “It’s about a quarter of a billion dollars in federal and state investment to take nonfood agricultural products and turn them into energy and hopefully help lower gas prices. I don’t think there is anybody bigger.”
By 2012, Tennessee could have the first commercial cellulosic ethanol biorefinery, if research continues to be successful, and researchers said they expect to produce ethanol from switchgrass for less than $1.50 per gallon, Dr. Tiller said.
“That would be very competitive with gasoline,” Dr. Tiller said.
Last June, the Oak Ridge lab in eastern Tennessee won a $125 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for a BioEnergy Science Center.
In addition to millions in state funding, the University of Tennessee Institute for Agriculture, in partnership with Mascoma Corp., a company developing cellulosic biofuel technologies, received a $26 million U.S. Department of Energy grant to develop biomass convergence technology — the method of turning switchgrass to fuel.
The grant will be used to build a $40.7 million pilot bioconversion facility near Knoxville where switchgrass can be converted into ethanol, said Dr. Tiller.
This year, 16 Tennessee farmers, including Mr. Rymer, were recruited to grow 723 acres of switchgrass and provide feedstock for the new refinery, said Ken Goddard, a biofuels specialists with the UT Extension.
The acreage devoted to switchgrass was limited by the availability of seeds, but Mr. Goddard said the program — centered in the 10 counties surrounding Knoxville — will expand 2,000 to 3,000 acres next year and 3,000 to 4,000 acres in 2010.
Farmers are being paid $450 per acre of switchgrass and, following last year’s drought, it is good to have guaranteed income, Mr. Rymer said. Unlike corn, switchgrass is a low-maintenance crop that requires little fertilizer and no irrigation, he said.
“I had corn last year and didn’t earn anything,” said Mr. Rymer. “That is one reason I am turning to this.”
Compared to cellulosic ethanol, corn ethanol is more expensive to produce, which is one complaint of critics, Dr. Tiller said. However, over the last year, the Tennessee Biofuels Initiative has made great strides in lowering costs, she said.
“A lot of progress has been made on the science,” she said. “We are making advances rapidly, and there is a lot of research and investment going into this right now.”
Researchers will learn many more methods of cost savings once the biorefinery, scaled at 10 percent of what a commercial refinery would be, is up and running, said Dr. Tiller.
“The idea is that it is big enough to see some of the challenges, but small enough not to require tons of volume,” she said.
Staff Writer Dave Flessner contributed to this story.
