Dr. Rowan Sage

The strings of kudzu that snake over hills, overtake rusted jalopies and generally smother the Southern landscape could be part of the solution to solving the world’s energy crisis.

At least that’s the theory one Canadian researcher wants to explore.

Dr. Rowan Sage, who spent his early teaching career in kudzu-covered Athens, Ga., at the University of Georgia, thinks kudzu’s starch-filled roots and even the fuzzy green leaves are perfect for ethanol production.

“If all that carbohydrate could be extracted into ethanol, then we estimate you could get about as much out of an infested field of kudzu as you could from an intensively managed field of corn,” said Dr. Sage, a professor at the University of Toronto.

“The difference is that the field of kudzu is there for the taking, while the field of corn has to be planted and maintained,” he said.

Dr. Sage is careful to point out that his theory has been only tentatively tested. However, with U.S. Department of Agriculture researchers in Maryland and Auburn, Ala., Dr. Sage found that kudzu roots, which are sometimes as thick as a human leg, produced 900 to 2,500 liters of biofuel per 2.4 acres. That compares to 2,000 to 3,000 liters of biofuel per 2.4 acres planted and maintained of corn.

“It’s not going to compete with corn, but it could be a valuable supplement,” Dr. Sage said. “The big question is how much it would cost to pull the kudzu roots out of the ground.”

Ray Burden, the Hamilton County Extension Service director, isn’t sold on the idea. First, he thinks farmers would burn up manpower and diesel fuel trying to pull up the massive kudzu tubers.

On top of that, he said the much-maligned Asian vine, which was widely planted across the South by the Soil Conservation Service to counter erosion problems in the 1930s, has some benefits.

“I don’t want to sound like I’m in favor of kudzu, but if you dug all the vines up, you’d be opening up to some additional environmental concerns,” Mr. Burden said.

For example, the hills around Cherokee Boulevard are covered with kudzu, which prevents erosion. Nothing else could replace it fast enough to withstand a quick wash out, he said.

Dr. Kelly Tiller, a University of Tennessee biofuels researcher, said Dr. Sage’s idea could work, but it would be better suited for a time when communities had their own biofuels facilities that could make the plant-based gas from just about anything.

“Can you make ethanol from kudzu? Probably,” Dr. Tiller said. “But can you make it economically? There’s not any information to support that yet.”

She adds that it may be some time before such an idea could be economically feasible. On top of that, she’s not sure pulling the roots up would be the best use of the plant. Instead, she thinks the leaves and vines, which grow 60 feet in a season, according to the site www.kudzufree.com, could be crushed and brewed into ehtanol.

A Cleveland, Tenn., man said last summer that he had used kudzu leaves and vines to make ethanol that powered his lawn mower. Doug Mizell said he crushed and brewed the vine in a process similar to brewing moonshine, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.

Mr. Mizell’s process is similar to the one Dr. Tiller and other UT professors are trying to develop now on a mass scale using switch grass.

“The technology is maturing rapidly,” Dr. Tiller said. “There are lots of other options to serve as a potential feedstock for ethanol. It’s smart to look at a wide range of options.”

Dr. Sage wants a Southern farmer or researcher to help him test his idea. He needs someone in the United States to apply for a USDA research grant.

“We don’t have the money to research it at the moment. It falls between the cracks of what’s fundable,” Dr. Sage said. “If we could get a savvy graduate student, we could probably pull something together. That person, with a farmer, could help us figure out if this would work.”

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