Tomorrow night the Decatur city council will be discussing an initiative to introduce alternative biofuel grasses to the Lake Decatur watershed area. If I got it right, this pertains to grasses that could be used as a bio-energy source and a means to help prevent soil erosion, which is causing sediment buildup in Lake Decatur. It’s purpose is to study how well such grasses would do in our area and encourage farmers to switch to such grasses for biofuel production. Well, considering Central Illinois was once covered with 12 foot tall prairie grasses, I think our soil can grow grass pretty darn good!
Unlike corn, grass actually gives back considerable amounts of nutrients to the soil, thus requiring far less, if any fertilizer – which finds its way into our water supply. After all, we can credit the prairie grasses that once covered our part of the state for our rich soil.
Personally, I’ve never been a proponent of corn-based ethanol. Corn ethanol, in essence, takes about as much energy to produce as it yields. It’s also highly subsidized by the federal government and takes massive amounts of water to produce. It requires approximately 1,700 gallons of fresh water to produce one gallon of ethanol! This is undoubtedly a huge strain on our lake and local water supply. We’re not alone. Other regions in the county have dealt with the strain corn-based ethanol production puts on their water supplies. Switching to grasses, like Switchgrass for our biofuel needs, is certainly something to consider.
Here’s an interesting article on switchgrass: http://bioenergy.ornl.gov/papers/misc/switgrs.html
City Council Agenda for January 20, 2009: http://decaturil.gov/citygovernment/council/council_agenda.htm
Kris this is too cool I cannot remember the name of the plant – but I heard this on Ag radio – 1520 am Clinton. There is a plant that grows fast and puts out about 10 times the oil that soybeans do. It takes very little nutrients from the soil and can be planted late fall (after harvest) and harvested early spring (before planting) There is already a factory or something around Peoria working with this plant. I cannot for the life of me remember the name. But as soon as I heard this I was pretty excited by it. I’ll look around and see if I wrote myself some notes on this. I’d before the switch grass stuff just don’t want to see trees removed to do it….
sloppy writing – I meant to write: I would be for the switch grass ideas – just don’t want to see trees removed to do…
Pennycrest is the plant and here is an article on it in Peoria Journal Star
http://www.pjstar.com/homepage/x1791270274/Buying-into-biodiesel
the thought behind it is that it could be grown in the very same fields we now use for corn and soybeans….
Sue, thanks for the link! I’d never heard of pennycress before but that is a very idea. It can be grown during the colder months, prevent erosion, and add nutrients to the soil.
I hope there’s a good discussion tomorrow night on the different options. I’m interested to learn more about it.
Hey, I just watched the agenda and that is Steve Johns from AWI! I know him and really like him. I served on the community environmental council board wiht him and also attended a couple of really interesting seminars his AWI put on regarding our environment and working together – city folks, developers and farmers. That is cool I don’t know if I can attend but I may try. I can’t think of much Steve would do I wouldn’t support. He also served on city council for while…
It’s been interesting doing some more research on switchgrass. I still haven’t found out how much water it takes to produce ethanol from switchgrass as opposed to corn. An undisputed benefit is that switchgrass is a perennial, so that’s a huge saving for farmers who don’t have to replant each season nor burn diesel fuels in order to plant it year after year. There’s also very little need for fertilizer. Considering soil conditions in our part of the state, I don’t any fertilizer would be needed.
Some of the sites I’ve come across certainly have a slant to them. I have a feeling some of the Web sites were created by the corn ethanol industry and aren’t the most unbiased sources. There’s a lot of politics involved.
At any rate, it’s a promising alternative fuel source; it can grow in lesser quality soils, adds nutrients to the soil, helps prevent soil erosion, and provides wildlife habitat.
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I’m happy to hear the city thinks this is also a good idea and approved the funds. If nothing else, it will help out Lake Decatur and area wildlife – and to me that’s enough incentive right there.
Tonights CONO meeting is canceled due to weather – too many old folks -