The “Switchgrass” Feedstock – Is it Possible to Fool Mother Nature?

This week, two new announcements were published.  The first was that PepsiCo had developed a 100% plant-based bottle.  The second was that Google Ventures had invested an undisclosed amount of Series B funding in CoolPlanet Biofuels, a start-up that makes biofuels from plant waste.  The link seems to be switchgrass, or Panicum virgatum, a prairie grass that has been researched as a renewable bio-energy crop since the mid 1980s.  To be fair, wood chips (pine bark for Pepsi’s innovation and forest waste for CoolPlanet’s technology) are also common ingredients used for both of these technologies.  Ultimately, Pepsi plans to use orange peels, oat hulls, potato scraps and other leftovers from its food business.  CoolPlanet Biofuels’ process can use plant and forest waste in its mechanical/thermal process.  In other words, biomass is all the rage as a source of energy.

The use of biomass for fuel has been discussed, here,  in previous posts.  In these earlier discussions, we documented that use of biomass for energy is not  a new concept, having been around for more than 25 years.  Biomass energy technologies are an attempt to reproduce what Mother Nature has already done through eons of pressure and heat applied to ancient biomass, producing what we know as petroleum.  Petroleum, of course, is the primary world fuel source, as well as the source of thermoplastic polymers used in making bottles for soft drinks among many other things.

The value of the “switchgrass (aka biomass) feedstock” will be highly dependent on the cost of its related technology in terms of equipment and energy.  As the cost of a barrel of oil goes up, these alternative technologies approach break-even.  However, we all know that we are an administration away from seeing Mother Nature’s technology recovering its dominance.  My guess is that, evolutionary technologies, such as using switchgrass/biomass for energy or as a source of carbon-based molecules for plastics will never adequately replace Mother Nature as a feedstock source.



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