Auburn researcher brings biomass message to Ozarks
Agriculture is about to become a major player in United States energy policy and production, according to Dr. David Bransby, professor of agronomy and soils at Auburn University in Alabama.
A native of South Africa, where he was reared on a small dairy farm, Dr. Bransby is a graduate of the University of Missouri College of Agriculture and has spent the past two decades researching bioenergy crops.
Dr. Bransby has been among the nation’s foremost promoters of switchgrass for biofuel production and has served as an energy advisor to President George W. Bush.
Friday, Feb. 22, Dr. Bransby brought his biofuels message to the Ozarks New Energy Conference in Springfield’s Gillioz Theatre.
Dr. Bransby was one of nearly 30 speakers in the two-day conference in downtown Springfield.
City and county governmental entities joined with private business and educational institutions to sponsor discussions of energy costs, production, alternative sources, policies and environmental considerations for the Ozarks.
Dr. Bransby said Americans are “getting complacent” about gasoline prices, but called the increase in oil prices from $50 a barrel to near $100 a barrel within the year a “crisis.” As an aside, he added that the United States spends about $1 billion every day on imported oil, and about the same on the war in Iraq.
Corn for ethanol is the primary source of biofuels today, but Dr. Bransby believes the industry needs to be moving toward biomass. Many biomass materials can be used for cellulosic ethanol production, including corn stover, sugar cane, miscanthus and wood chips, but Dr. Bransby favors switchgrass, a widely adaptable perennial warm season native.
Switchgrass can be baled or chopped and stored in outside piles. It provides wildlife habitat, has a root system that improves the soil and lives indefinitely.
The problem with growing switchgrass on a commercial scale is that millions of acres will be needed. “We just don’t have enough seed,” Bransby said.
Two different techniques can be used to produce ethanol from biomass feedstocks. Sugar conversion is inefficient and costly. A thermochemical system is more efficient, and though capital costs are high results in lower production costs and is feasible on a smaller scale, according to Bransby.
“Private industry is going to do this, regardless of what the government does or doesn’t do,” Bransby said.
Dr. Bransby’s research provided fuel in 2007 for the fire under founders of the National Biomass Producers Association, a grass-roots organization focused on independent or family owned farms with a stated purpose to “facilitate the development of a sustainable renewable fuels industry in the United States by building a strong network of biomass producers, technology companies, business and research professionals and caring citizens who, by working together will contribute in a balanced fashion to the energy needs of our country.”
Terry Bohmont, NBPA member and switchgrass producer at Sparta said following Dr. Bransby’s address that seed is a problem. “A few years ago we had a glut of seed, but they quit pushing it and seed has been short the last couple of years.”
Bohmont at one time had 35 acres of switchgrass for seed, but cut back to 12 acres after seed prices dropped. Seed prices have since rebounded to about $10 a pound.
Bohmont said the first good seed crop can’t be harvested until the third year after planting, so meeting increased seed demand will take time.
Ed Cahoj, a Braunvieh cattle producer from Half Way and president of the NBPA, said plans are to promote thermochemical production, rather than use an enzyme process. Thermochemical manufacture does not require the massive quantities of water demanded by corn ethanol production. “Water is not an issue,” said NBPA advisor Jack Ryan.
Cahoj said one of the functions of the NBPA is education, as well as enlisting biomass producers. “We want to keep impressing on people that this technology is coming.”
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