Feb. 1, 2006 — -- It grows throughout the Great Plains and parts of the South, can be used to make ethanol -- an efficient and environmentally friendly fuel for cars -- and it has the potential ...

Several years ago, farmers had a pretty good financial incentive to grow switchgrass. Now, they’re looking for a new market to justify planting the lush, warm season grass. Will Brandau, chairman of ...

Switchgrass grown for biofuel production produced 540 percent more energy than needed to grow, harvest and process it into cellulosic ethanol, according to estimates from a large on-farm study.

Switchgrass yields more than 540 percent more energy than the energy needed to produce and convert it to ethanol, making the grassy weed a far superior source for biofuels than corn ethanol, reports a ...

John Fike, a Virginia Tech researcher, combs through switchgrass at the school's agricultural center in Orange, Va. According to a five-year study conducted by researchers at the University of ...

The unrealized promise of a biomass industry aside, switchgrass offers many advantages for land owners thinking about adding a native grass to their pastures, said Dirk Philipp, forage researcher and ...

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) a DOE Bioenergy Research Center led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have made an ...

Grass that needs no mowing? Endures drought and heat? And what if it resists diseases and pests, offers year-round interest and provides food, shelter and nesting sites for birds and other wildlife?

When President Bush mentioned switchgrass as a potential source for biofuels in his 2006 State of the Union Address, not many would have guessed that a species of grass could gain so much popularity ...

Will switchgrass, a tall, resilient and fast-growing native plant once familiar to pioneers, become the next cash crop for farmers in states in the Chesapeake Bay drainage? In a convergence of ...

Biologists are one step closer to the goal of making a cheap, widely available plant a source for energy and fuel. Lowland switchgrass ready for harvest. Overton, Texas. Photo Credit: Jason Bonnette ...

The researchers also say that over the lifecycle of the fuel -- from growing the switchgrass to burning the ethanol in a car engine -- it emits 94 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline.