Growing grasses on corn land can benefit ethanol producers and environment

In the US, using inefficient farmland to grow perennial grasses instead of corn for the production of ethanol can yield increased volumes of corn and higher ethanol output per acre, according to a new report. The move would also see a reduction in the levels of carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions.

The study, which is published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, found that converting 30% of the most unproductive corn-cultivation areas to miscanthus could prove advantageous.

'If cellulosic feedstocks (such as miscanthus) were planted on cropland that is currently used for ethanol production in the US, we could achieve more ethanol (+82%) and grain for food (+4%), while reducing nitrogen leaching (-15-22%) and greenhouse gas emissions (-29-473%),' says the report.

Evan DeLucia, professor at the University of Illinois and Energy Biosciences Institute led the study. He says: 'Globally, agriculture contributes about 14% of the greenhouse gases that are causing global warming to the atmosphere. The whole Midwest has been, since the advent of modern agriculture, a source of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. According to our model, just by making this replacement, you convert that whole area from a source of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere to a sink for greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.'