Think 'X Files' for this fuel source

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Nevada is home to Area 51, deemed the most famous secret military installation in the world. So it's no surprise that Nevada should be headquarters for a surprising source of military grade fuel.

According to a news release from the University of Nevada in Reno, "the plant grindelia squarosa, known as curly top gumweed, has extractable hydrocarbons with the potential use as a biodiesel or biomaterials crop," says Prof. Glenn Miller. The arid land crop requires little fertilizer or water, as compared to soybeans, which compete with food.

The final biofuel product of curly top gumweed is up to 122 gallons of biofuel per acre biannually. If 10 per cent of the sagebrush land in Nevada were used to grow gumweed for biofuels, "400 to 600 million gallons per year of jet biofuels could be produced," said engineering school collaborator Hongfei Lin. "There's lots of potential." BF