No corn, no problem

The problem of rising gas and food prices has had the global community starving for an answer to this growing problem in recent years.

The solution to this crisis may have been found right here at A&T.

Dr. Abolghasem Shahbazi, the former chair of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association and a bioenvironmental engineer, claims that the answer is in the swamps.

Using duckweed, the smallest angiosperm that grows in water and ponds, researchers say they can use this as a new form of ethanol.

"We're trying to alleviate global warming and reduce our dependency on fossil fuels," said James Berghs, an A&T graduate student pursuing an environmental engineering degree. "I'm very much in this field because I really think it's something we have to do quickly."

But maybe more important than the speed of the job is the safety, which could possibly be the largest advantage of the duckweed plant.

Unlike fossil fuels, which put new chemicals into the air, ethanol is simply recycling what is already in the environment. Ethanol is not a new discovery however. Already being used, and even mandated in some states, to be a 10 percent blend with the gasoline in cars, ethanol had already been in usage through corn. The difference is that now it is being taken from a non-food source, duckweed, which can only help the ever-climbing food crisis.

Duckweed produces up to 1000 gallons of ethanol an acre per year, in comparison to corn producing 300 gallons per acre annually.

Shabazi, not only expects his research will cut down on the demand for corn and the subsequent hike in food prices, he also believes duckweed will one day replace gasoline and drastically cut the cost of fuel.

He also feels the plant will be used for fuel nationwide within five years. "I hope that people are starting to realize how serious this is now that gas prices are sky rocketing," said Bergh.

In fact, they have reached the exosphere. The national average is now the highest in American history at $3.61 per gallon. The cost of oil is $118.75 to the barrel. It may have taken these high prices to awaken a global society that was seemingly slumbering on the urgency of environmental issues. Now people are exploring all alternative options to fossil fuels like hydrogen and solar power.

According to Bergh, who attended Guilford College for his under-graduate and is currently working on his thesis on the duckweed part of ethanol, the nation needs to begin building a hydrogen or solar infrastructure to prevent the inevitable. "I think that by the end of our lives, either we're going to have found some new energy source, or we're going to have to scale back significantly in the way we live," said Bergh.