Australian rock band AC/DC was on a roll with several record hits like ‘Back in Black’ and ‘For Those About to Rock We Salute You’ in the early 1980s, until that is, the ‘Flick of the Switch’ in 1983 that some rock critics say was the beginning of the end for them and a “commercial […]
In Texas, a team of scientists from nine universities and research facilities hope to find out how to make switchgrass — a fast-growing perennial native to the U.S. — into a biofuel powerhouse. It’s part of new project from the U.S. Department of Energy. In nature, switchgrass sequesters carbon underground in its roots, produces cellulose […]
In Michigan, high yielding switchgrass varieties that require minimal nitrogen fertilization are crucial to bioenergy research because of their economically and environmentally sustainable qualities. Switchgrass, like other perennial grasses, extracts nitrogen from soils by growing long roots and by forming relationships with root fungi. Switchgrass also associates with microbes that can fix nitrogen, i.e., take […]
In South Carolina, a Clemson University researcher has received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop genetically improved and more robust turfgrass and switchgrass. These perennial plants represent a multibillion-dollar segment of the U.S. agricultural economy. A key challenge to engineering better turf and switchgrass […]
In Florida, an assistant professor of biology at the University of North Florida, was just awarded nearly half a million dollars from the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture to study switchgrass as a viable plant-based biofuel. The study aims to provide new insight into the factors that regulate the productivity and sustainability of […]
In Michigan, researchers from Michigan Technological University, University of Tennessee, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan State University are looking at Wisconsin switchgrass to better understand the costs and benefits to harvesting at various points in the season. Comparing data from samples collected every two to three weeks from the switchgrass fields against biofuel yield data […]
In Illinois, a University of Illinois crop scientist will lead a team of researchers on a five-year study of new crops that could contribute to the production of affordable, sustainable sources for market-ready fuels and other valuable products. They were awarded $5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for a study titled “Next-Generation […]
In Washington, D.C., researchers with the BioEnergy Science Center (BESC) genetically modified switchgrass to produce less lignin to improve ethanol conversion and found that the long-term effects of the modified lignin had no negative impacts on the soil. The study looked at the impact on soil over two to five years and concluded that there […]
In Colorado, a study from Colorado State University finds new promise for biofuels produced from switchgrass, a non-edible native grass that grows in many parts of North America. Scientists used modeling to simulate various growing scenarios, and found a climate footprint ranging from -11 to 10 grams of carbon dioxide per mega-joule — the standard […]
In Georgia, a research team led by the University of Georgia has discovered that manipulation of the same gene in poplar trees and switchgrass produced plants that grow better and are more efficiently converted to biofuels. In a paper published recently in Nature Biotechnology, the researchers report that reducing the activity of a specific gene […]
