Argonne, UChicago researchers pursue grasses as Earth-friendly biofuel

WEBWIRE – Monday, July 21, 2008

ARGONNE, Ill. (July 2008)—At a small site on the Batavia campus of Fermilab, ecologist Julie Jastrow of Argonne National Laboratory pushes the scientific frontier in a new and exciting way: She watches the grass grow.

As part of an effort to develop a new collection of alternative fuels, Jastrow and her colleagues from the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago have planted seven different combinations of native Midwestern prairie grasses on the 13-acre site at Fermilab’s campus.

The experimental facility that Jastrow planted in June will examine the sustainability of different perennial bioenergy crops – plants that could be turned into energy either by being burned directly or by being converted into cellulosic ethanol.

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