[CPEO-BIF] Renewable fuel crops on brownfields

["Hersh, Robert" <hersh@WPI.EDU>]

PRNewwire

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- A Detroit-area
brownfield site was anything but brown this year due to a unique experiment
by a Michigan State University researcher. Sunflowers, corn, soybeans and
other crops lent their colors to a section of the former dump site under
the watchful eye of Professor Kurt Thelen, Ph.D.
    Thelen has partnered with DaimlerChrysler, the State of Michigan, the
United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and NextEnergy of
Detroit in a project to reuse the former dump site to research and develop
better renewable fuels. He is leading the investigation into the
possibility that crops can be grown on former industrial sites for use in
ethanol or biodiesel fuel production. His first crops of soybeans, corn,
sunflower, canola and switchgrass -- harvested this fall -- will be tested
for their potential to be refined into renewable fuels.
    The Rose Township Project will serve as a model for potential reuse of
hundreds of Superfund and brownfield sites nationwide. The EPA has endorsed
the research under the agency's Return to Use initiative, designed to
encourage the reuse of Superfund sites. Approximately two acres of the 110-
acre site are being used for research.
    "This site may seem like a drop in the bucket, but we're looking at the
possibility of taking land that isn't productive and using it to both learn
and produce," said Professor Thelen. "The research we're conducting in Rose
Township could have major implications for both rural and urban brownfield
sites nationwide. If I had a brownfield in my neighborhood, I know I'd
prefer it be 'greened' and put to a constructive use."


To read the entire article, see,
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-19-
2006/0004455260&EDATE=
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