http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=17910749


Hmmm.... seems even the hippies at NPR are seeing the light.

Excellent.

5.5 to 1 energy return.


"The bottom line is perennial energy crops are very net energy-efficient. It is going to be economically feasible, the basic conversion technology has been developed, and it is going to be a viable process."

 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=17910749

Link didn't work

 

Lemme see if I can fix that...

Kk - fixed.

 

I don't think there's ever been any debate about switchgrass's net energy gain. The question has always been about the economics of processing it into ethanol, and this article doesn't really address that issue. Hopefully it doesn't turn out to be like batteries, where feasibility is always "5-10 years away" and never seems to get here. Being a relatively new industry with a lot of money being thrown at it, I hope the obstacles can be overcome for cellulosic ethanol.

 

$2.50 per gallon right now for cellulosic ethanol, and dropping.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/5435602.html

 

It'll just take time. That's all. Gasoline, I very much doubt, spawned from nothing into the buisiness that it is now. We can just wait and see.

I read somewhere, that the projected price for Ethanol from Switchgrass, is something like 33-50 cents a gallon once it reaches commerical production amounts.

Awesome, though. Very promising.