Tuesday, June 17, 2008
News Kudzu could be used as biofuel?
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 9:04 PM
The Discovery Channel brings news that the worst gift Asia ever gave us could be used to offset some of our demand for oil.
[Rowan Sage of the University of Toronto and colleagues at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's] team gathered samples of kudzu from different locations in the south at different times of year and measured the amount of carbohydrate -- which can be converted into ethanol by yeast -- present in leaves, vines and roots.The roots were by far the largest source of carbohydrate in the plant: up to 68 percent carbohydrate by dry weight, compared to a few percent in leaves and vines.
The researchers estimate that kudzu could produce 2.2 to 5.3 tons of carbohydrate per acre in much of the South, or about 270 gallons per acre of ethanol, which is comparable to the yield for corn of 210 to 320 gallons per acre. They recently published their findings in Biomass and Bioenergy.
Sounds awesome, but researchers say it would only offset our hunger for bioethanol by 8 percent. That's if it's economically viable to harvest the vicious vine. Or is it a weed?
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