This information has arisen from work carried out by Southampton University as part of the Cropgen research project.   The bioethanol and biogas figures are both based on the use of wheat assuming 8 tonnes of wheat grain per hectare.   Biodiesel assumes 3 tonnes of OSR per hectare.   Biogas comes out on top of both alternative biofuels, and this does not take into account the digestion of the whole crop, which would increase the energy ratio further to above 1:5.   The energy balance of both bioethanol and biodiesel could be improved with the utilisation of their by-products within anaerobic digestion; these by-products include a fibrous cake and glycerol.

Energy crops are commonly used as the primary feedstock within digesters in Germany and Austria. With funding from the Dti, Greenfinch started researching the use of ryegrass as an energy crop in 2003.   This progressed to Greenfinch's partnership in Cropgen, an EU funded project investigating the use of agricultural waste and energy crops within farm digesters.