Ethanol from grass, is it going to be better for the environment?

Question

People say that the fertilzer needed for corn production makes ethanol not very friendly and that switch grass is better. How many lbs of N does an acre of switch grass need? How many lbs of switch grass can you get off an acre with out high rates of N? How is switch grass going to be harvested, packaged, and hauled to the ethanol plants? Just wondering, does any one on here know how much N it takes to grow a bushel of corn. I know that Nitogen is not the only nutreant needed to grow crops but it is the highest cost in corn production and it takes alot of fosil fuels to produce enogh NH3 or Urea to grow the corn the country needs.

Answer 1

I recently read an article about this in the national geographic. The easiest way to tell you about this is to give you the link to the article. I hope this helps.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/20...

Answer 2

It requires no fertilizer or irrigation.

It's baled just like hay or straw.  Which means that all farmers can do this, as the equipment cost is low.

This also means that agricultural by-products can be used to make ethanol.  No more waste of wood chips or leaf burning in towns, all goes in our fuel tanks.

Answer 3

No one has figured out a commercially viable method for making ethanol from grass.