Growing energy comparing fuel crop biomass
Featured sonstist Greg antara Unity of Wiscon Motion
Research Background
Most of us Uso fossil fuels every day. Fossil fuels power our cars, heat and cool ou
homes, and are used to produce most of the things we buy These energy sources are
called "Yossil fuels because they are made from plants and animals that grow hundreds
of millions of years ago After these species died their tissues were slowly converted
into coal, Oil and natural gas An important fact about fossil fuels is that they are limited
and nonrenewable. Il lakes a long time for dead plants and animals to be converted into
fossil fuels Once we run out of the supply we have on Earth today, we are out! We
need to think of new ways to power our world now that were more energy than oVOE
Biofuels are made from the tissues of plants that are alive and growing today When
plants are harvested, their tissues, called biomass, can be converted into fuel Biofuels
are renewable, meaning we can produce them as quickly as we use them up. At the
Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center sites in Wisconsin and Michigan, scientists
and engineers are attempting to figure out which plants make the best biofuels.
Gregg is a scientist who wants to
find out how much plant biomass can
be harvested from different crops like
corn, grasses, weeds, and trees. The
bigger and faster a plant grows, the
more biomass they make the more
biomass the more fuel can be
produced. Gregg is interested in
maximizing how much biomass we
can produce while also not harming
the environment. Each plant species
comes with a tradeoff - some may
be good at growing big but need a lot
of inputs like fertilizer and pesticide
Corn is an annual meaning it lives
only for one year. Corn is one of the
best crops for producing a lot of The experimental bioenergy crop farm has multiple
biomass. However, farmers must plots of each crop planted in a grid.
add a lot of chemical fertilizers and
What