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Flipping the switch on switchgrass |
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More than gasahol
It takes two to three years for a switchgrass crop to first begin producing enough to make it harvestable as a biomass, Frederick said. But he’s not recommending that farmers go out and plant switchgrass.
If different variables don’t come together at the right time, a lot of farmers could have switchgrass no one will buy or switchgrass that’s too far from a processing plant to be profitable.
Despite all of the enthusiasm for switchgrass, it has a specific growing season and can’t supply a biorefinery year-round.
“A big ethanol plant is going to be using several sources of biomass. It’s not going to be just one source,” Frederick said. “Any biomass is going to help rural communities. It’s going to help the farmers. I wish I had a crystal ball to look two years down the road and say ‘Boy, this was a good choice.’”
S.C. Energy Office’s Hartwig said not everyone will be a winner in the biomass race. She encourages farmers, entrepreneurs, researchers and anyone wanting to be involved in alternative fuels in South Carolina to get involved with the S.C. Biomass Council.
“We’re seeing these trends particularly in the Midwest. We want the same sort of things for South Carolina farmers,” she said. “Once you start seeing ethanol and biodiesel facilities start popping up in rural economies, there’s a lot of job opportunities, particularly for farmers.”
Switchgrass burns both ways
In his office overlooking Charleston’s historic East Bay Street, John B. Kern, an attorney specializing in international law who’s also CEO of Carolina-Pacific LLC, made his case to South Carolina’s state-owned utility: Run your coal-fired electric plants off switchgrass instead of coal.
Kern argued that the energy company serving much of rural South Carolina could support the rural farming economy in the Interstate 95 corridor by using switchgrass to generate electricity and then selling electricity back to the farmers that grew the switchgrass.
Santee Cooper didn’t sign up that day. As a participating member of the S.C. Biomass Council, the utility said it is monitoring the potential for switchgrass, but doesn’t have any specific plans to use the crop.
Carolina-Pacific said the company is next going to commercial power companies in the state to try to sell them on the idea. Founded in 2007, the privately held energy production and trading company focuses on renewables.
“We started looking at this prospect of what could be done in the grand scheme to attract investment to develop this as an energy crop,” Kern said. “It’s a tremendous opportunity for the I-95 corridor. Switchgrass should be the replacement for tobacco.”
Lignin, a byproduct of turning switchgrass into ethanol, can be dried and compressed and used as a coal alternative. Switchgrass can also be burned outright without the conversion to ethanol. It doesn’t burn as well as coal, generating about 70% of the energy that coal generates, but the only waste from switchgrass is carbon dioxide and ash. Also, researchers at Clemson think that with selective planting and genetic engineering, they can close the energy gap between switchgrass and coal.
Getting Santee or another electric company to sign a contract would be a great business deal for Carolina-Pacific, but Kern said the underlying goal is to position South Carolina as a leader in developing this industry.
Last year, Tennessee put $70 million toward switchgrass alone, according to the University of Tennessee. The state is also building a cellulosic ethanol plant at an industrial plant near the university. Comparatively, under state legislation incongruously titled “Energy Freedom and Rural Development Act,” South Carolina’s commitment to all biofuels cannot exceed $2.1 million.
Carolina-Pacific already brokers contracts between wood chip and wood pellet suppliers with electric plants in Europe where the Kyoto Protocol requires utilities to burn renewable fuel as a supplement to coal. Even with the added expense of transporting break-bulk container ships full of burnable biomass, the overseas pressure to comply with environmental laws keeps the demand high.
The company, which won a $200,000 biofuel grant from the S.C. Energy Office and is in talks with venture capitalists, is developing a hockey puck-sized product made of woody biomass material, which it hopes will include switchgrass. Carolina-Pacific is signing farmers to 10-year contracts and hopes to soon have 100,000 acres of land in South Carolina dedicated to future switchgrass plantings.
“If they will grow it, we will buy it. The economic impact would be tremendous for the region from an agricultural perspective,” Kern said.
Depending on biofuels
Switchgrass could be a turning point for South Carolina rural farming communities struggling with the loss of agricultural cash crops and the decline of textile mills that for decades thrived between the cotton and tobacco fields.
If corn-based ethanol is any indication, there will continue to be a huge demand. The United States produced more ethanol than any country in the world in 2006 and still imported 650 million gallons.
Traveling through the winding nature trail at the Pee Dee Center where students and Scout troops learn about the legacy of agriculture in South Carolina, it’s clear that Frederick and his team have a lot of work to do.
Frederick characterizes the biggest challenge for himself as the limited “number of hours in a day.”
The stakes are high and the clock is ticking. As South Carolina works to develop a new crop, the federal government has already put $385 million toward cellulosic biorefinery projects in Kansas, Florida, Southern California, South Dakota, Colorado and Virginia.
“When the president says we need to look at alternatives and puts some money behind it, even the oil companies know we have to look at alternatives. The biofuels look like the most promising,” Frederick said. “We’ll probably plant as many acres as they have seed available this year.”
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