Cattails serve as powerful detoxifiers, cleansing water of chemicals. They also tolerate relatively high concentrations of salt and are fast growing. Cattails may be deployed in secondary or tertiary sewage treatment (or as cleansers of river, stream, or ocean water) to efficiently improve water quality -- while doubling as a feedstock for the production of E100.*
Cattails grow in marshy areas -- lands not classified for agricultural use. The bases of the plants collect large amounts of starch (and have been recorded as having higher starch contents than potatoes) -- which can be converted to E100. Wastewater actually serves to provide nutrients to cattails, with higher potential E100 yields when grown in wastewater (high in nourishment for cattails). It is estimated that a single acre of cattails grown in wastewater could be converted to 2500 gallons of E100 [corn in comparison produces ~200-400 gallons/acre].*
*Blume, David (2007). Alcohol Can Be a Gas! Fueling an Ethanol Revolution for the 21st Century. Santa Cruz, CA, USA: International Institute for Ecological Agriculture
"Cattails" via Matt MacGillivray from Toronto, Canada, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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