Perennial Grasses: Important Biomass Source Feedstock for Bio-Based Products and Bioenergy

Perennial grasses considered as ideal feedstock for biobased products and bioenergy production. During the last two decades several grasses have been tested at european level in the framework of research projects. According to 4FCROPS project the most importnat perennial crops for Europe are: miscanthus, reed canary grasses, switchgrass, giant reed and cardoon. Two of them (reed canary grass and miscanthus) cultivated in a commercial scale with a total area of cultivation 29500 ha. Miscanthus and giant reed established by using rhizomes or plantlets, while all the other established by seed. Their lifetime is 15 years, while for cardoon it is reporting that its rotation cycle last 4 to 5 years. In 4FCROPS the yields of these crops as well as the raw material characteristics based on the findings of the main research projects that have been carried out in Europe the last two decades. Addionally, the economic viability of these crops were investigated though the developing of several economic case studies for specific sites in EU27 when the crops cultivated in both agricultural and marginal lands as well as with low an high inputs. In the same project the environmental impact analysis of the five selected perennial crops with annual energy crops and conventional crops potato showed that the perennial crops had lower impact compared to the annual ones and the conventional crops. Currently, the perennial grasses are being investigated in three research projects entitled: OPTIMA, OPTIMISC GRASSMARGIN and EUROBIOREF.