Prairie Poplars Part Of Biofuel Study

Independent contractor Steve Roth walks through the Hayden Area Regional Sewer Board’s poplar grove on Tuesday. A $40 million research project, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is studying poplars’ potential to produce cellulose-based biofuels. The grove north of Hayden is one of four test plots in the five-year project. (SR photo: Kathy Plonka)

Seventy acres of poplars on the Rathdrum Prairie rustled in a hot, summer breeze, flashing silvery-green leaves. Someday, cars and trucks could be running on fuel made from the trees. A $40 million research project, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is studying poplars’ potential to produce cellulose-based biofuels. The grove north of Hayden is one of four test plots in the five-year project, which is being led by University of Washington researchers in cooperation with two private companies and five other colleges and universities. “They are an amazing tree, when you think about the amount of biomass per acre they are able to generate,” said Joe Regnery, chief commercial officer for ZeaChem Inc., a Colorado company that is one of the research partners. In Hayden, the fast-growing poplars were harvested back to stumps less than two years ago, but already have new canopies stretching 20 feet into the sky/ Becky Kramer , SR. More here .

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