The quest toward a sustainable and prosperous society will be paved by innovation and complex ideas rooted in simple principles. At the upcoming COP24 United Nations Climate Summit in Poland, delegates from around the world will get their first look at a potential revolutionary alternative to fossil fuels that is sure to generate some buzz.
The future of clean energy may in fact be found…with grass.
NextFuel Uses Quick Growing Elephant Grass to Make Coal Pellet Substitutes
At least that is the promise coming from NextFuel, a Swedish based company who has apparently developed and patented a way to take widely available and easily grown Elephant Grass (and other grasses) and convert it into a non-fossil fuel based equivalent that can be used in coal plants without any modifications to the plant design.
NextFuel is introducing a completely new energy solution to climate change that is apparently CO2 negative, cheap, profitable and massively scalable. Their CO2 negative fuel briquette, made from elephant grass, is cheaper than oil and cheaper than coal in most markets. A coal plant can, without any investments, directly replace some or all of its coal with this clean alternative.
Apparently, elephant grass needs C02 to grow and store it in their root system. It can grow up to 4 metres tall in just 100 days, and produce several crops a year. Grown on a large scale it is claimed that the crop will in fact reduce levels of carbon in our atmosphere. These grasses can also be planted in areas of the world where the ground is deemed not suitable for other forms of agriculture.
These are indeed remarkable claims. The ability to produce a pellet that can be used in current coal plants without producing any carbon emissions could theoretically make coal and other fossil fuels completely redundant. It seems to have generated enough interest and validity for the Austrian Government, who has Chair status of the EU at the moment as well as is the location of NextFuel’s first plant, to invite the company to COP24 to share their technology with the world.
In a press release NextFuel says that the new technology has been tested and proven. They are currently implementing the first large projects in East-Africa and South America, and NextFuel was recently chosen as a best practice project by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s R20 Austrian World Summit. https://regions20.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/projectcall.pdf
The video makes some rather remarkable claims, and if true could form the basis of a major shake up in the global energy sector, and one with remarkable potential impacts.
The quest toward a sustainable future has seen it’s share of great ideas fall by the wayside for one reason or another and this may yet be the case here. However the supposed cheap costs, scalability and easy adaptation into our current power generating systems make this concept certainly one to keep an eye on.
News Alert:
While the COP24 announcement discovery says that ELEPHANT GRASS CROPS to FUEL are a solution to REDUCING CARBON EMISSIONS since the crop absorbs more Co2 growing than when burnt, few realize that SWEET SORGHUM CROPS combined with WATER STEAM INJECTION offers even better advantages of being CHEAPER & CLEANER than Gasoline or Diesel in conventional cars or trucks new or USED.
Plus, there is a law of the UN that you can not take land for fuel because the priority is to grow grain to eat.