Biofuels, Fossil Fuels & the Greenhouse Gas Factor

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=48083

Researchers at Colorado State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service have completed an analysis of greenhouse gas emissions from biofuel production. Study results revealed that when compared with the life cycle of gasoline and diesel, ethanol and biodiesel from corn and soybean rotations reduced greenhouse gas emission by nearly 40 percent, reed canarygrass by 85 percent, and switchgrass and hybrid poplar by 115 percent.

Hybrid poplar and switchgrass were found to offset the largest amounts of fossil fuels and therefore reduced emissions the most out of the studied crops.

"Biofuels have a great potential to reduce our dependence on imported gasoline and diesel fuel," said William Parton, researcher from Colorado State's Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory (NREL). "We have performed a unique analysis of the net biofuel greenhouse emissions from major biofuel cropping systems by combining ecosystem computer model data with estimates of the amount fossil fuels used to grow and produce crops for biofuels."

Parton, along with Stephen Del Grosso, USDA scientist and NREL researcher; and Paul Adler from the USDA used the DAYCENT biogeochemistry model, developed by Parton and Del Grosso, to assess soil greenhouse gas fluxes and biomass yields for corn, soybean, alfalfa, hybrid poplar, reed canarygrass and switchgrass.

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Less effective at reducing greenhouse gases; but very effective at lining the pockets of agribusiness, and in deepening the problems of world hunger as a by product.

What are the current commercial technologies for converting hybrid poplar, reed canarygrass and switchgrass into ethanol? Perhaps it's Iogen's pilot process? I hope they addressed this in the full study.