The Next Source of Renewable Energy Might Be Grass
The balance between cost and renewability. has been very hard to find in the field of green energy, but a promising solution has arisen.
There has been an ongoing debate about green energy: how do we find an environmentally-friendly method of harvesting energy that is both renewable and cost-effective? Current solutions for renewable energy are, for the most part, fairly expensive. On the other hand, fossil fuels are somewhat affordable, but they can be very harmful to the environment. Fortunately, there is another solution that might turn out to be viable. Let’s turn our eyes to a third option, one that is both renewable and affordable: grass.
Why Grass?
Energy from grass is known as biofuel, which is energy made from living matter such as plants. Research has been done to observe how practical using grass as a biofuel could be; one team from the Cardiff University in the UK studied if grass could be used to obtain hydrogen, which has been seen as a potential alternative to fossil fuels. According to Professor Michael Bowker, a co-author of the study, “Hydrogen is seen as an important future energy carrier as the world moves from fossil fuels to renewable feedstocks, and our research has shown that even garden grass could be a good way of getting hold of it.”
Finding a reliable and inexpensive method of obtaining hydrogen has been a great challenge for a long time. However, the team of UK researchers found that it is possible to convert cellulose from plants into usable hydrogen simply by using a catalyst and sunlight (you can read the paper here). Compared to other methods of obtaining hydrogen, this is much easier and more affordable. Grass is also useful because it has “a greater energy density than food waste” according to Dale Vince, founder of England-based energy supplier Ecotricity. Let’s take a closer look at the process that extracts hydrogen from grass.
The Hydrogen Extraction Process
First, a large quantity of grass is collected and transported to an anaerobic digestion plant. This is where microorganisms can break down the plants in an oxygen-free area. Once this process is completed, biogas and fertilizer are produced. According to CNBC, “[T]his biogas can then be purified and turned into biomethane, which can be sent to the gas grid alongside more conventional fossil fuel gas.” Unlike the methane from fossil fuels, this type of methane does not harm the environment because it is from living matter. From there, it can be used wherever fossil fuel gas can be used, from stoves to fireplaces.
Drawbacks
Although this method of producing energy is renewable, there are some drawbacks associated with it. While planting large amounts of grass, a large amount of fertilizer and pesticides are used to ensure the grass grows well. However, this can harm the environment, as fertilizer and pesticides can contaminate waterways through runoff. That being said, this problem can be bypassed if natural fertilizer and pesticides are used.
Another drawback of using grass to produce biomethane is that a lot of water is used up to grow the crops to a sufficient height needed for breaking them down. The breakdown of a few acres of grass by microorganisms requires watering all of the plants very frequently.
If this is used everywhere, a few more problems can arise. First, grass prices could rise substantially if this is used in large-scale energy production. Additionally, this could take away most of the grass from cattle farms, which would perpetually require more grass to be planted.
What This Means For the Future
Could we expect a grass-powered car in the next one or two decades? Maybe not, because the car would have to run on gas, which may not be possible due to size problems. However, for items like fireplaces and stoves, I don’t see why this cannot be implemented. Fireplaces and stoves already use gases from fossil fuels, so they can easily switch to renewable biomethane.
If it becomes possible to convert the biomethane gas into electricity, its uses can be expanded substantially. This could even let us create a “grassmobile”, which would generate electricity using biomethane made from grass. This electrical energy can also be used in EV charging stations. The grass-to-electricity process could also replace more expensive renewable energies such as solar and wind power.
Whether you prefer to use renewable energy for its impact on the environment or non-renewable energy for its price, there is always the potential third option of using biofuels such as grass. As more companies look into the production of biomethane and solutions to some of this technology’s drawbacks, it isn’t completely farfetched to claim that we may see more uses of grass-made biofuels in the next decade.
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