The debate over alternatives to gasoline derived from oil frequently overlooks infrastructure requirements for distributing alternative fuels. Members of Carnegie Mellon’s interdisciplinary Green Design Institute recently modeled nationwide distribution of switchgrass–derived ethanol. William Morrow, Michael Griffin, and Scott Matthews support switchgrass as a supplement to corn for cellulosic ethanol production. Petroleum pipelines cannot be used to transport ethanol because of impurities from petroleum, so regional solutions could be more effective than national distribution. The full report of their National Science Foundation–funded research is published in the American Chemical Society’s journal, Environmental Science and Technology.
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Green Design Institute
National Science Foundation
Environmental Science and Technology
