02/10/2006

At Long Last . . . Switchgrass

AUBURN, Ala. — When President George W. Bush zeroed in on switchgrass in his 2006 State of the Union address as one possible new source of ethanol to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil, the vast majority of the audience did a double take. Switchgrass? Most people were puzzled.

Not David Bransby, or anybody who has talked with the Auburn University agronomy professor about his research in recent years. Bransby has been studying switchgrass as a bioenergy crop for almost two decades and has been advocating its potential for nearly that long.

He is convinced that biofuels made from switchgrass and other agricultural crops and byproducts can both reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and strengthen America’s farm economy. And he’s hoping that the president’s specific reference to the crop will propel switchgrass from the field to the fuel tank.

“I’ve always been optimistic about the future of bioenergy in the United States,” Bransby says, “but my optimism has been substantially increased” since Bush’s remarks Jan. 31, when the president acknowledged that the nation is “addicted to oil” and called for the technology to produce ethanol “not just from corn but from wood chips, stalks or switchgrass.”

Namely, Bransby hopes that the time in the spotlight will encourage Congress to appropriate federal dollars to build a commercial refinery that would demonstrate the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of biofuels.

“The government has been waiting for private industry to commercialize the technology, but private industry isn’t willing to take that initial risk,” Bransby says. “All it will take is just one federally funded commercial refinery, and industry will take it from there.”

Bransby came from his native South Africa to Auburn University in 1987 as an associate professor of agronomy whose research was to focus on forages and grazing management. But shortly after his arrival, two senior professors in charge of a federal multi-state grant to identify high-yielding, low-input herbaceous plants that could be converted to energy moved on, and Bransby inherited the project. Switchgrass already had been identified as the model species for the project.

“I insisted that I wasn’t qualified to take over the research because I didn’t know anything about the subject, but the response was that nobody else knew anything about it, either; renewable energy was a totally new area,” Bransby says.

He admits that, initially, “I thought it was a crazy idea.” It was his assignment, though, so Bransby grabbed the bull by the horns and immediately set out to learn what he could about the production of energy from biomass—at the same time that he was educating himself, as an emigrant, about U.S. agriculture.

“What I saw was that the two could fit together,” Bransby says. “American farmers overproduce the major commodities most of the time, and Washington has responded through the decades with farm programs, which have created stagnation in U.S. agriculture by discouraging new ideas and change.

“Energy crops, while not a total solution, would help by giving farmers new markets and reducing their dependence on farm subsidies,” Bransby says.

Switchgrass—specifically, as Bransby has found, the variety known as Alamo—is a natural fit for southern agricultural producers. The prolific native grass species can grow to heights of 10 feet or more. A highly adaptable species, it is resistant to many pests and diseases and can produce high yields with extremely low applications of fertilizer. It’s a perennial, so it doesn’t require planting every year. It’s also tolerant of drought, poor soils and floods, and it can be harvested with equipment most farmers already own.

“Our economic models show that switchgrass could give farmers a $100-per-acre return over their variable costs,” Bransby says. “No other crop will do that for them.”

Farmers indicate they would be willing to grow switchgrass for energy if they had a guaranteed market.

When the U.S. Department of Energy cut funding for Bransby’s switchgrass research program in 2002, Bransby sought and secured funds from the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station to carry on his investigations into growing the crop and pushing for its commercialization.

“I’ve continued because I believe this is really important stuff,” Bransby says. “It’s going to play a major role in our country’s future.”

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News from:

Office of Ag Communications & Marketing

Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 Comer Hall, Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)

Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu

For immediate release