New Frontier in Alternative Energy: Stinkweed

An Albany-based company has created a program that encourages upstate New York farmers to grow today's biofuel du jour, a pesky weed known as Thlaspi arvense but more commonly referred to as pennycress or stinkweed. Despite the experiments your college roommate conducted in his '89 Subaru Loyale with the windows rolled up, this is believed to be the first time a car has been successfully powered by a weed. We imagine that a certain laid-back bandana-wearing musician will be thrilled to offer such a product at his BioWillie stations.

What differentiates stinkweed from the plethora of other world-saving, game-changing biofuels that came before it (anyone remember switchgrass?) is the fact that most farmers can't help but grow it. According to the AP, when executives from Innovation Fuels approached farmer Brian Ziehm about growing an acre of stinkweed on his property, he was dumbfounded. "It was like, 'What the heck?'" Ziehm said. "I've been trying to get rid of these things for 30 years. Now you want me to plant them?'" It's exactly that kind of cockroach-like inevitability and pestilence that makes switchgrass so attractive to scientists searching for a stable, hardy source of fuel.

The folks at Biodiesel Magazine say that stinkweed is an ideal biodiesel feedstock because its seeds yield 36 percent oil when crushed. They should know: after all, they work for Biodiesel Magazine. According to Innovation Fuels' president John Fox, both the plants and the resulting oils are undergoing testing. So far, things look good even if they might smell bad. "We're really pleased with the oil," Fox said, adding that stinkweed oil has excellent cold-flow properties.

Aside from the obvious opportunity to make childish jokes about Phish, Rick Ross and Cheech and Chong, we're most excited about the fact that growing Thlaspi arvense as a biofuel probably won't affect the world's food supply like soybean and corn based fuels. Plus, the fact that it is a "winter annual" means that farmers can grow a "double crop," harvesting pennycress before planting another crop. That's good news for farmers and drivers. Still, there's one major hurdle before pennycress supplants (pun intended) other biofuels: it isn't yet domesticated to the point where it can be planted as a crop.

by Keith Barry for Wired.com

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