Corn ethanol vs. switchgrass project ideas?

I%26#039;m doing a project and i have to create a trifold board on ethanol (adv. and dis.) I would really like to compare ethanol made from corn to ethanol made from switchgrass, by using charts. Any ideas, information, charts, designs, sources, ect. you may have would be appreciated. Thank You.



You can get a lot of basic information from a good set of feed analysis tables.


I might suggest that you add another comparison to your project and that would be whole plant corn versus corn grain and then switch grass.


I believe that good switch grass production would be in the neighbor hood of 7 tons per acre or 14000 lbs dry weight. Some of the research varieties might be higher.


Total plant corn would be 9 tons or 18000 lbs per acre.


With efficient cellulosic conversion both of these would yield about 80% of the starch converted to alcohol.


A good crop of corn grain (160 bu.) would yield 7600 lbs of dry matter per acre and still only convert about 80% of the starch.


From these figures you can see that whole plant corn which is easier to grow would yield the most alcohol.


One advantage to switch grass production, it is a permanent plant so requires much less cultivation and care than a corn crop.


Another advantage of corn. It can be used a lot of different ways. Switch grass is very limited.


%0D%0A