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A plan to grow biofuel feedstocks along the roadway
Dallas Hanks is pursuing a doctorate degree at Utah State University and his effort has grown to a national scope called “Freeways to Fuel.” “We’re trying to figure out how to grow biodiesel feedstocks along roadsides, military lands, railroad rights-of-way, power company rights-of-way, any type of land that we are maintaining and not getting anything out of.” So what kind of acreage are we talking here? Hanks says on the roadsides alone we are looking at about 10 million acres, “About the same as the cotton crop we grow in the United States.”
There are a variety of challenges from what crops can be grown, who plants the crops to highway safety. The project has grown and now involves partnerships with the National Biodiesel Board, New Holland, several state transportation departments and about a dozen universities reaching from North Carolina State to Washington State.
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