Weed Transforms Animal Poop into Fuel

A tiny flowering plant that thrives on animal waste could be the next big biofuel, say researchers at North Carolina State University. Duckweed, which is often seen in shallow ponds, transforms animal waste into a leafy starch that can then be turned into ethanol. Ultimately, using duckweed as fuel could kill two birds with one stone so to speak, because it could put all of that harmful animal waste from factory farms to good use.

From NC State, via Matter Network:

Their research shows that growing duckweed on hog wastewater can produce five to six times more starch per acre than corn, according to researcher Dr. Jay Cheng. This means that ethanol production using duckweed could be “faster and cheaper than from corn,” says fellow researcher Dr. Anne-Marie Stomp.

Starch from duckweed can be readily converted into ethanol using the same facilities currently used for corn, Cheng adds.

Large-scale hog farms manage their animal waste by storing it in large “lagoons” for biological treatment. Duckweed utilizes the nutrients in the wastewater for growth, thus capturing these nutrients and preventing their release into the environment. In other words, Cheng says, “Duckweed could be an environmentally friendly, economically viable feedstock for ethanol.”

Animal waste is a huge problem – it’s playing a big role in the dead zones that are blooming in oceans around the world, including the Jersey-sized one in the Gulf of Mexico. If duckweed could give us clean, renewable fuel while also addressing this issue, that would be huge. It’ll be interesting to see where things go from here.

Link [NC State] via [Matter Network]

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