More and more countries are beginning to pick up on this new low-cost technology.
Canada has research facilities get up on farms in rural locations that pellet a variety of different grass species.
Europe is producing reed canary grass pellets in small scale pellet boilers and right here in the US, researchers have noticed that we have a huge amount of acreage of agricultural land that is currently unused.
Some of the US's land is in the conservatory program and is reverting back to woody growth, but there is still ample land available to grow grass and produce an efficient bioenergy.
The grass fields can be cut mid to late summer, left to dry or leach right where they lay, then baled and pelleted.
This process of leaching removes the drying costs, which automatically makes them cheaper than corn or wood pellets.
Currently there are no manufacturers that are building stoves specifically designed to handle the ash content created by burning grass pellets.
However, there are manufacturers that are working closely with researchers at Cornell University; testing different stoves already on the market that would be able do the job.
Bixby Energy Maxfire corn stoves, Harman corn stoves, and CountryFlame corn stoves have all burned grass pellets successfully; however they are all corn stoves and not grass stoves.
These pellets have a history of causing premature corrosion to the combustion equipment and are said to cause clinkers a lot quicker.
You see, it's not so much the quantity of the ash but rather the composition of the ash that poses the most problems.
Calcium and phosphorus were found in high levels inside of switch-grass, which creates a lower melting point in the ash.
The cool part though is that in each study done, grass pellets gave off just as much heat as wood pellets, which makes them just as effective.
Moisture inside the grass pellets is actually welcomed unlike corn and wood pellets.
Researchers say leaving the grass pellets in the rain helps them burn longer and have a negative impact on greenhouse gas production.
As these pellets get more popular, hopefully it doesn't take the world too long to see that this is a renewable source of energy, we will begin to see our demand on oil, gas, propane and electricity drop in statistical numbers.
Canada has research facilities get up on farms in rural locations that pellet a variety of different grass species.
Europe is producing reed canary grass pellets in small scale pellet boilers and right here in the US, researchers have noticed that we have a huge amount of acreage of agricultural land that is currently unused.
Some of the US's land is in the conservatory program and is reverting back to woody growth, but there is still ample land available to grow grass and produce an efficient bioenergy.
The grass fields can be cut mid to late summer, left to dry or leach right where they lay, then baled and pelleted.
This process of leaching removes the drying costs, which automatically makes them cheaper than corn or wood pellets.
Currently there are no manufacturers that are building stoves specifically designed to handle the ash content created by burning grass pellets.
However, there are manufacturers that are working closely with researchers at Cornell University; testing different stoves already on the market that would be able do the job.
Bixby Energy Maxfire corn stoves, Harman corn stoves, and CountryFlame corn stoves have all burned grass pellets successfully; however they are all corn stoves and not grass stoves.
These pellets have a history of causing premature corrosion to the combustion equipment and are said to cause clinkers a lot quicker.
You see, it's not so much the quantity of the ash but rather the composition of the ash that poses the most problems.
Calcium and phosphorus were found in high levels inside of switch-grass, which creates a lower melting point in the ash.
The cool part though is that in each study done, grass pellets gave off just as much heat as wood pellets, which makes them just as effective.
Moisture inside the grass pellets is actually welcomed unlike corn and wood pellets.
Researchers say leaving the grass pellets in the rain helps them burn longer and have a negative impact on greenhouse gas production.
As these pellets get more popular, hopefully it doesn't take the world too long to see that this is a renewable source of energy, we will begin to see our demand on oil, gas, propane and electricity drop in statistical numbers.