Thursday, August 09, 2007

Kuzdu in Your Tank

This is an interesting theory: Kudzu as biofuel.

Kudzu, for those of you who aren't familiar with the pesky plant, is an invasive Japanese vine that has taken over large swaths of the south. It literally swallows things whole, including trees, telephone poles, etc. in areas where it's allowed to grow unthwarted.

If it really was viable as a biofuel, and we could control it and expand our options for fuel consumption at the same time, it could be an interesting project.

And who knows--get rid of some of the kudzu smothering the landscape these days and you just might find Jimmy Hoffa under there somewhere.

And here's a interesting example of why it's such a pesky plant:


Ioannis Petrus said...

The idea is to remove the kudzu for fuel and then reclaim the land with a non invasive species such as sweet potato for continuing ethanol production. Unfortunately, neither our Congress nor our President have seen fit to fund this project, and so it with other vital research, which serves as the infrastructure of our life style is crumbling. No new money for our systemtatic collections; no money to buy subscriptions from foreign countries of on going research at the National Agricultural Library; no money to consider what happens when current grain crops begin to be nagatively impacted by CO2 increase, which is already happening with rice. Somehow we seem to blindly think that the basic science will be there to keep the bridge upright when we cross over without funding.

HEWY said...

LOL, I love the idea of use Kudzu for something!!! Great Blog!

jennifer echols said...

Kudzu can grow as much as a foot a day. In Alabama it's illegal to possess kudzu seeds or seedlings. See, I remember something from all those reports I did in 9th grade!