[Okgrantsmanship] Article on Switchgrass Research for Biofuels

[Mason, Linda]

Joint college-corporate research focuses on switchgrass

By Staff and Wire Reports, The Tulsa World
12/5/2007 

Since President Bush slipped the seldom-heard term "switchgrass" into
his 2006 State of the Union Address, the prairie grass has been in
vogue. Because it's a perennial crop, it needs less fertilizer,
recycling nutrients at the end of every season. It also puts down a deep
root system, which helps it combat soil erosion, and adds to soil
organic carbon every year. "Switchgrass is a wonderful crop for the soil
and environment," said Anna Rath, vice president of commercial
development for California energy crop company Ceres Inc.

Switchgrass will now be the focus of the five-year research and
development collaboration between South Dakota State University and
Ceres -- an attempt to maintain and build on the plant's positive
attributes while working to boost its yield. Switchgrass, a native
prairie grass tapped as a potential feedstock for ethanol, is a hardy
plant that's disease resistant and drought tolerant, said Arvid Boe, a
professor in the plant science department on the South Dakota State
campus in Brookings. Ceres, based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., also is
working to develop commercial varieties of forage sorghum, miscanthus
and energy cane for use as energy crops. 

Energy companies moving from corn-based to cellulosic ethanol will
benefit from developing a portfolio of various feedstocks, Rath said.
Biorefineries may want to choose multiple crops -- even within the same
geographic areas -- to vary harvest times and mitigate risks of
diseases, pests and drought conditions, she said. The research should be
of interest in Oklahoma, where political leaders have been trying to
encourage the building of biofuel facilities that use switchgrass, which
grows in the state.

In August, $2.5 million in Sun Grant Initiative monies -- funded through
the U.S. Department of Transportation -- were given out. One of the
recipients was Oklahoma State University, which is participating in a
joint project with Kansas State, Arkansas and Texas A&M to breed and
test new switchgrass varieties for biomass production. South Dakota
State, which also has researchers working with prairie cordgrass and
little bluestem, has had a grass breeding program since the late 1940s.
The school has been working with native grasses since the 1960s. But
earlier projects focused on the grasses' use as forage in pastures and
wildlife habitats. 

"Now we are sort of changing our focus here and concentrating more on
just biomass yield," Boe said. Kevin Kephart, the university's vice
president for research, said SDSU was ahead of the game when Bush raised
switchgrass' profile because researchers working two decades ago
anticipated the plant's day would someday come.

"We had a valuable breeding program and pool of germ plasm for
switchgrass, and so that level of research was maintained at SDSU," he
said. "It went away at other institutions." Researchers will begin by
identifying germ classes that appear to have the potential of developing
high yields. The process will involve evaluating different genotypes
under different growing conditions. "Since we're thinking about a pretty
wide area here, it means that we have to evaluate materials in different
locations around the state and maybe even in other adjacent states," Boe
said. 

 
Linda Mason, Ed.D.
Coordinator for Grants and 
External Funding Assistance
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education
655 Research Parkway, Suite 200
Oklahoma City, OK 73104
405-225-9486
800-858-1840
405-225-9230 Fax
lmason at osrhe.edu
web: www.okhighered.org/grant-opps/
IP: 164.58.250.178 (on 24hr/7days/wk)
 
 
 

 

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