From Grass To Gas

As soon as Oklahoma became a state it led the nation in oil production. Things have fallen off since, but King Oil still brings a pretty penny to the state's coffers. Those in the know say Oklahoma's

Monday, October 29th 2007, 9:10 pm

By: News On 6

As soon as Oklahoma became a state it led the nation in oil production. Things have fallen off since, but King Oil still brings a pretty penny to the state's coffers. Those in the know say Oklahoma's poised to lead a second energy boom, fueled by the majestic grasses of our native prairies. News On 6 anchor Scott Thompson reports in our next hundred years, it looks like we'll be paying homage to King Switchgrass.

It's been a mainstay of Oklahoma's tall grass prairies since those grasses first sprouted eons ago. Plowed under for farming, switchgrass today stands at a new frontier. All that grass could make Oklahoma the Saudi Arabia of biofuels.

â€œThere are stands of switchgrass from the old days that some agronomists have that are 18 to 20-years-old. Well that's got to be a benefit that's a big benefit,â€ said Dr. Joe Bouton of the Noble Foundation. â€œSee, corn and some of the other biomass crops like sorghum have to be planted every year, and so that's a risk the farmer has to take.â€

When Dr. Joe Bouton was beginning his research career in agronomy, he never imagined he'd be at the forefront of energy production. But that's where switchgrass has placed Bouton, and other scientists, at Ardmore's Noble Foundation. At the Noble Foundation researchers are doing the most cutting-edge research in the nation on making switchgrass the ethanol fuel of the very near future.

â€œWe see it as a pretty environmentally-friendly crop. First of all it's a native plant, second of all it's a perennial that stays on the land, once you get the land covered with it we won't have the dustbowl days again, like we did,â€ Dr. Bouton said. â€œIt'll cut down on erosion and like I said, there's a lot of animals, birds and all kinds of animals that can live in this stand, and if you'll work around their nesting time, on any management you do, you can actually make it very environmentally friendly. And none of it comes from the Middle East. That's the other key.â€

As the nation tries to find a way to wean itself from Mid-East oil, corn has become king as an ethanol crop. But brewing fuel from corn has plenty of drawbacks.

Demand for corn drives up the price of every food product that contains it, and every animal that eats it.

Corn needs lots of water and fertilizer, and only the kernels are harvested for fuel.

Corn has to be replanted every year.

The return in fuel processed for fossil fuels used to produce it is very low.

And then there's all that tough Oklahoma switchgrass.

â€œWe have a resource that is almost incomparable and those are our Great Plains, and the prairie grasses, the perennial prairie grasses that grow in those Great Plains are absolutely the best feedstock that you can have for a biofuels industry,â€ Oklahoma Secretary of Energy David Fleischaker said.

Oklahoma Secretary of Energy David Fleischaker has led the charge to bring the state's best minds together to create an Oklahoma biofuels industry. The legislature provided the initial $40 million investment for the Bio-Energy Center, a consortium of OU, OSU and Noble Foundation scientists.

In Ardmore, their charge is taking a tough plant and making it tougher, with higher yields and better disease resistance. And farmers will have to learn how to plant the grass as a crop. That's where OSU's Ray Huhnke comes in.

â€œThe future's very bright especially for rural Oklahoma, because I can envision this distributed energy production facility that would actually be located very near smaller communities that will enhance their economic development,â€ said Dr. Ray Huhnke of Oklahoma State University.

But that's the stumbling block. Right now there's no farmer growing the grass, and no processor making it into fuel.

â€œSo what's gonna come first? The biofuel plant and then they'll get a contract to grow it, then they'll grow it or will they start growing it? Then a biofuels plant will locate here because they can grow it here,â€ said Dr. Joe Bouton of the Noble Foundation.

All those working to get this idea off the ground came together earlier this month to figure it out. The governor showed up to give a pep talk and told The News On 6 that biofuels in Oklahoma isn't a pipe dream.

â€œYes, I believe the biofuels industry can and will become a huge industry nationally, and I think Oklahoma should and will be the leader,â€ Governor Brad Henry said.

Imagine Oklahoma leading another energy boom. With a fuel that never runs out. It's just that in the next hundred years, the roughnecks will be driving tractors.

â€œWe can see in Oklahoma a total economic revitalization in rural Oklahoma as we take on this new role, our growers take on this new role, of energy providers for the United States,â€ Oklahoma Secretary of Energy David Fleischaker said.

David Fleischaker estimates when a switchgrass plant is built, it will provide an immediate $40 million boost for any town that lands one. There are at least two ethanol-processing plants on the drawing board in Oklahoma, in Guymon and Blackwell. Neither will be processing switchgrass.

Watch the video: Grass Clippings In Your Gas Tank

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