Bioelectricity vs biofuels: which is most efficient?

clipped from www.energyefficiencynews.com Biomass – energy crops like corn or switchgrass – can be used to produce ethanol or generate electricity. But which is more efficient for powering cars? According to researchers from the Carnegie Institution, the University of California, Merced and Stanford University, converting biomass to electricity delivers 80% more miles per acre of crops and doubles the potential for greenhouse gas offsets. “It’s a relatively obvious question once you ask it, but nobody had really asked it before,” says co-author of the study, Chris Field of the Carnegie Institution. The researchers looked at the lifecycle of both bioelectricity and ethanol technologies, taking into account the amount of energy produced relative to the area of crops used and the energy needed to produce the fuel itself and the vehicles that run on it. Converting biomass – whatever the feedstock – to bioelectricity is more efficient than converting to ethanol.