On an overcast, chilly day in late March, scraggly rows of experimental crops line the test plots here at Iowa State University’s research farm.
Corn is king in Iowa, both as a food grain and now as a focus of efforts to rev up the biofuel industry. But these plants bear less-familiar names: switch grass, miscanthus, and kenaf.
The brown and black stalks are not much to look at, having weathered Iowa’s winter snows. But Iowa State researchers see these crops as seeds of change in alternative fuels. By summer, the grasses will be lush, tall, and green.