The recently published Royal Academy of Engineering report – Sustainability of liquid biofuels, supports the growing of Miscanthus. Growing energy crops such as Miscanthus is recommended, particularly where it can be done on marginal land that is unsuitable for food production, housing or has been degraded through deforestation. These sources of biofuel can most effectively avoid the risk of land use change and more generally make use of biomass and land areas that would otherwise have little or no value. The report concluded up to 3.6 Million hectares could be used in the UK without impacting on food production. Cultivation of these erennial energy crops, such Miscanthus, could sequester into the soil CO2 from the atmosphere at the rate of 2.2 t CO2/ha.yr. The report concluded that the UK should incentivise the development of second generation biofuels, from source including dedicated energy crops and set a cap for the supply of all crop-based biofuels to reduce the risk of indirect land-use change. The report overall highlights the strong environmental and financial benefits provided by Miscanthus as a crop to provide second generation liquid biofuels. The full report is available here.

http://www.raeng.org.uk/news/news-releases/2017/july/biofuels-made-from-waste-are-the-business,-says-ac