While almost every plant on earth has been investigated as an

alternative energy resource, for some odd reason tobacco

has been entirely overlooked. I call this odd because the high
sugar & starch composition of tobacco is well-known, as is
the very low lignin encasement of its cellulosic materials.
With this data alone it should be clear to science, agriculture,
and industry worldwide that the tobacco plant has a nearly
ideal composition for direct digestion to ethanol, and is also
an ideal candidate for biomethanation or gasification.
Tobacco-based ethanol can be produced for far less cost per
gallon, with far more economically valuable sidestreams,
than corn-based ethanol ( see below for full details). It has
also been conclusively demonstrated in lab and field trials in
Europe in 2008 that by adding tobacco to manure a very, very
significant enhancement of biogas production can be
achieved. With biomass tobacco's demonstrated low costs of
production, it is clear that biomass tobacco is the first cost-
effective purpose-grown biogas substrate and ethanol
feedstock. Further, it is known that tobacco is a heavily
coppicing plant, enabling it to produce very high biomass
tonnage, and it is also known that tobacco thrives on poor
soils in a wide range of environments.

Perhaps the most attractive aspect of tobacco-based biomass fuel

is that not only would tobacco fuel not take away from food
crop production, as corn-based ethanol does, it would
actually add immense tonnage of food-grade protein that can
be extracted from the sludge remaining after ethanol is
produced. Fraction-1 protein is an odorless, tasteless
crystalline substance that can be extracted from tobacco,
and it is a complete protein - as efficient a source of human
food value as beef. It would be totally 'paid for' by the ethanol
produced from the tobacco biomass, and so it would be, in
effect, free food. It can be added to flour of all kinds and used
to produce baked goods like bread and tortillas, adding
enough high quality at no cost to these basic foods to
practically eliminate protein deficiencies in even the poorest
countries. Does this sound like a pipe dream? Please read
on.
Another of tobacco's real advantages over all other biomass
energy plants comes from its potential as a source of high
quality, low cost animal feed. This property is supported by
strong anecdotal evidence from commercial Tobacco farmers
whose fields are sometime overrun with grazing animals who
find a way in, but hasn't been proven in formal trials as far as
I know. If it can be shown conclusively that cattle, sheep,
goats, pigs and chickens accept and thrive on sweet, young,
zero-nicotine biomass tobacco in various forms (grazed,
ensilaged, pelletized, etc), then before energy is extracted
from tobacco biomass, it can be fed to animals to produce
ultra-low cost meat and dairy protein, eggs and other human
foods. While it is likely that many of the limitations
experienced in feeding the residues of ethanol production
from corn and grain to animals will apply to both fresh
tobacco biomass and to the residues of biogas and ethanol
production from tobacco, it is also possible that by mixing a
to-be-determined proportion of fresh biomass with their
conventional feed, the cost of feeding animals can be
lowered very significantly.

The manure from protein production can then be used as a rich

energy feedstock for either liquid fuels or methane gas, and as a
chemical feedstock for other co-products. It is this dual-use
potential of biomass tobacco, combined with the economics and
environmental advantages of production, which I believe makes it
such an attractive candidate for investigation.

Here, briefly, are some of the major facts. When grown as biomass
rather than for smoking, tobacco yields between 100-200
Tons/Acre of low-cost high value biomass materials. This
production range, and fully accounted costs of @$1500-
$2000/acre (USD) have been established in university trials.
When grown as biomass there are none of the high costs,
labor requirements, chemical inputs, or geographic
restrictions associated with conventional tobacco production
- in fact, we might as well be talking about two entirely
different plants.

Tobacco biomass has multiple high value economic uses in

renewable energy and sustainable food production, as well
 as in industrial agriculture applications. The dry weight yield
for biomass tobacco is between 10-20% of wet weight,
yielding 10 at a minimum and up to 40 at a maximum Dry
Tons/Acre. This material is 25-28% highly digestible sugars,
and 20-25% high quality protein. Tobacco's 40% cellulose is
very low in both hemicellulose and in lignin. This means that
Tobacco's cellulose is readily available for chemical
digestion, like ethanol production without expensive added
enzymes, or natural digestion, like for animal feed.

As livestock feed, biomass tobacco will probably cost well under

$10/ton. With costs this low for high quality livestock feed,
truly cost-competitive electric power production from manure
becomes feasible. Also when directly digested for ethanol,
the fermentable materials in tobacco biomass extrapolate to
between 700 - 2500 gallons/acre, and the digested sludge
remains an economically valuable material. Most of the
world's agricultural regions are already familiar with
production of commercial smoking tobacco, so a shift to
production of tobacco as an energy crop would require
minimal additional infrastructure/capital requirements and
would produce minimal disruption to existing work patterns.

Everything considered, I believe that biomass tobacco production

can mean between $4000-$6000 per acre net profit for any
farm cooperative and even for many individual
farmer/rancher/growers, depending on their available
acreage.

If you find this all either very odd, simply unbelievable, or perhaps
interesting, you're cordially invited to visit and browse.

1. Tobacco Bioenergy FAQS

Nicotine is made of dried leaves of the tobacco plant. Nicotine is a mild stimulant to the
nervous system. Some of the short term effects of nicotine include increased pulse rate
and blood pressure due to constricting of the blood vessels, helps some people to
concentrate, relaxation, reduces anxiety. Many young women turn to tobacco use because
tobacco increases the metabolism rate of the body and supresses the appetite. This is the
main affect of tobacco that attracts all young women.

Research has shown that it takes a long time of constant smoking to actually become
dependent on the nicotine. People like the affects of the nicotine and get used to it which
causes them to desire more. Much of the dependence of nicotine is psychological.
Smokers think that they need tobacco to rest, relax, reduce anxiety, control their appetite,
because they use it so often to control these problems that they begin to think that
smoking is the only way to be in control. This is where the dependence begins for many
people.

There are a lot of jobs throughout the world which depend on tobacco and cigarettes.
Without tobacco, many people in developing countries would be out of jobs. Tobacco is
important to the economy in terms of growth and development.