PACK POINTS
Creating energy from. . . duckweed?
Call it the little plant that could.
The duckweed system consists of shallow ponds that can be built on land unsuitable for conventional crops and is so efficient it generates water clean enough for re-use.
Researchers at NC State have found that duckweed—a tiny aquatic plant—can be used to clean up animal waste at industrial hog farms and potentially be part of the answer for the global energy crisis.
Their research shows that growing duckweed on hog wastewater can produce five to six times more starch per acre than corn, according to Dr. Jay Cheng, professor of biological and agricultural engineering. This means that ethanol production using duckweed could be “faster and cheaper than from corn,” said fellow researcher Dr. Anne-Marie Stomp, associate professor of forestry.
Corn is currently the primary crop used for ethanol production in the United States. But duckweed presents an attractive, non-food alternative that has the potential to produce significantly more ethanol feedstock per acre than corn, can exploit existing corn-based ethanol production processes for faster scale-up and can turn pollutants into a fuel production system.
The duckweed system consists of shallow ponds that can be built on land unsuitable for conventional crops and is so efficient it generates water clean enough for re-use. The technology can utilize any nutrient-rich wastewater, from livestock production to municipal wastewater. Post-doctoral research associate Mike Yablonski also worked on the research.
“In the spirit of George Washington Carver, who turned peanuts into
a major crop, Jay and I are on a mission to turn duckweed into a new industrial
crop providing an innovative approach to alternative fuel production,” Stomp
said. 