Ethanol from Grass. A Miracle Crop?

The perennial grass Miscanthus X Giganteus could be more than two and a half times more productive than corn or switchgrass in producing ethanol, according to researchers. In addition to being more productive, it does not need to be planted every year like corn, thriving also in poor soil conditions and leaf out earlier than corn. The US is looking to replace 20% of gasoline with ethanol, and planting Miscanthus would only take up 9.3% of food production cropland to grow, compared to 25% being required to grow corn or switchgrass to produce equal amounts of ethanol.