Bioelectricity Beats Biofuel

Biofuels such as ethanol were once thought of as planet-savers. But growing the crops (mainly corn) to make the ethanol (a sub for fossil fuels) means using lots of water, chemicals, and land. Mounting studies suggest ethanol is not the greatest way to go and may even do more harm than good.

Better: Convert biomass to electricity. Sawmill towns have been doing this for decades, burning the bark and other waste to run steam boilers that generate electricity. A modern plant would employ carbon capture and sequestration technologies.

A new study calculates that bioelectricity used for battery-powered vehicles would deliver an average of 80 percent more miles of transportation per acre of crops.

For example, a small SUV powered by bioelectricity could travel nearly 14,000 highway miles on the net energy produced from an acre of switchgrass, while a comparable internal combustion vehicle could only travel about 9,000 miles on the highway. (Average mileage for both city and highway driving would be 15,000 miles for a biolelectric SUV and 8,000 miles for an internal combustion vehicle.)

"The internal combustion engine just isn't very efficient, especially when compared to electric vehicles," said Elliott Campbell of the University of California, Merced. "Even the best ethanol-producing technologies with hybrid vehicles aren't enough to overcome this."