Feb 3 - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Adam Wilmoth and Ja'Rena Lunsford The Daily Oklahoman

A native grass growing throughout central Oklahoma caught the country's attention this week when President Bush cited the plant as part of his solution to reducing the country's dependence on foreign oil.

While research is still in its infancy, Oklahoma alone could produce enough switchgrass to supply more than 1.1 billion gallons of ethanol a year without displacing corn, soy or any other crop.

Scientists have long known how to convert crops such as corn and soy into fuels capable of powering the country's cars and trucks. But traditional ethanol fuel has significant limitations.

"Our best guess is when ethanol gets to 10 (percent) to 20 percent of our gasoline usage, we will run out of cheap corn," said John Ashwood of the National Bioenergy Center in Golden, Colo. "That's still a big number, but it's not something that's going to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."

Instead, researchers are working to use native switchgrass, which can grow up to seven feet tall and is one of the four major species in the Tall Grass Prairie. The plant grows naturally throughout much of the eastern half of the country, and each acre can produce about 1,150 gallons of ethanol, according to the bioenergy center.

Switchgrass also would benefit Oklahoma because it can be harvested without displacing corn, soy or other existing farm crops.

The plant could be grown on the more than 1 million acres of Oklahoma land that have been taken out of production because they are susceptible to erosion, said Charles Taliaferro, emeritus regents professor at Oklahoma State University.

The state currently pays farmers to leave susceptible land bare.

The problem, however, with using switchgrass as an ethanol feedstock is that the plant contains large amounts of lignin -- the glue-like substance that allows plants to stand tall against the strong Oklahoma wind. OSU researchers are working to improve technology that will allow the industry to convert lignin more efficiently into sugars that can be used in ethanol production.

"We don't have the technology that is cost effective to compete with the corn fermentation process of the Midwest," said Ray Huhnke, an OSU biosystems and agriculture engineering professor.

Huhnke and a research group at OSU are working on a gasification fermentation process that will convert switchgrass to ethanol and make it more affordable for consumers. Huhnke said he believes the research project, Grassahol, will be able to offer switchgrass ethanol for less than $1 a gallon, compared to corn ethanol's going price of $1.30 a gallon.

But he said the goal is not to compete with corn. Instead, the effort is designed to work with corn ethanol to wean the country off foreign oil.

"Any time we can add ethanol produced in the U.S., it not only helps the economy, we cut prices at the pump," Huhnke said.