Harvesting invasive plants for use as biofuels sounds enticing
but in reality is very expensive and has many obstacles with the current
ethanol pathways. Harvesting invasive plants big concern is the
non-sustainability of the profit stream.
It doesn’t function like a normal crop, harvested and replanted, land
managers try to get rid of invasive plants by herbicides so the possibility of
multiple years of harvest isn’t promising.
A major issue is not enough biorefineries in a given area, which tends
to be expensive with the transportation of plants long distances. Today it
seems too costly but there are many possibilities to use invasive plants as an
alternative source of energy such as combustion of electricity. Invasive biomass
could drop existing supply co-fired with coal in electrical power plants. This would help eliminate technological
barriers that conversion to ethanol presents.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131120143754.htm
http://news.aces.illinois.edu/news/let%E2%80%99s-just-harvest-invasive-species-problem-solved
I agree with Jess. Harvesting invasive species will be costly and I feel there are not enough benefits just yet. Perhaps with further studies more will be discovered about the use of invasive species and how to get the cost down.
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