State grass studied as fuel replacement

The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Inc.

State grass studied as fuel replacement

By Jim Stafford
As printed in The Oklahoman, September 28, 2006.

Scientists at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation may have the answer to meeting the nation's voracious energy demands. It's a sugar molecule contained in the long stem of a blade of switchgrass.

Noble Foundation researchers are intent upon unlocking that switchgrass energy potential as a biofuel feedstock and developing varieties that can be grown in mass quantities throughout Oklahoma.

Foundation officials will share their advances in converting native Oklahoma switchgrass into a viable biofuel at next week's "Grow:Oklahoma Governor's Conference on Biofuels" in Norman. The two-day industry conference will be Tuesday and Wednesday in the University of Oklahoma Student Union.

Michael Cawley, president and chief executive officer of the Noble Foundation will participate in the opening panel discussion from 8:45 to 10:15 a.m. Tuesday. The topic will be "The Case for Biofuels."

Joe Bouton, director of the foundation's Forage Improvement Division, will participate in an Oklahoma Feedstock Production Plenary panel discussion from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Ardmore-based Noble Foundation announced an agreement in June with Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Ceres Inc. to create genetically altered varieties of switchgrass that can be used as an abundant fuel source and benefit Oklahoma land owners as a cash crop.

Since then it has expanded switchgrass performance trials into multistate, multivariety evaluations and begun seed production that is expected to lead to commercial seed sales by 2009.

Noble Foundation scientists also are working to establish switchgrass as a forage and hay crop that could also be used to produce biomass for biofuel production, Bouton said.

"We believe that once our producers are familiar with switchgrass as a forage product, then it becomes an easy transition to using it as a dedicated energy crop," Bouton said.

Cawley sees a key role for Oklahoma in the emerging biofuels industry just as it has been in the oil and gas industries.

"We can apply the wisdom of our past as we develop, implement and produce biofuels," he said. "Oklahoma has a bounty of natural and agricultural resources that ensure our ability to be a leader in this industry."

Noble Foundation scientists have expanded their biofuels research to forage sorghum and other crops as possible feedstock sources for biomass ethanol refineries. Foundation officials see a role for Oklahoma in refining the switchgrass energy potential into cellulosic ethanol.

But it all hinges on the production of an abundant switchgrass crop to feed the refineries.

"The success of this industry begins and ends with the agricultural producers," Bouton said. "We believe there will be opportunities to integrate dedicated industry energy crops into existing agricultural operations in Oklahoma."

This article appeared in the Daily Oklahoman, www.newsok.com, on September 28, 2006.