Gulf Ethanol “switches” to sorghum, switchgrass from food-based feedstocks, in food vs fuel publicity effort

April 22, 2008

In Texas, Gulf Ethanol announced that it will discontinue use of food-based feedstocks, and will switch to sorghum and switchgrass. “We won’t burn your food,” President J.T. Cloud said. “The answer to rising fuel prices is not to run away from alternative energy production. It is to move rapidly toward the use of non-food feedstocks that are abundant and cheap.”

The announcement appears to be less a change in stratgey than an attempt to cash in on food-vs-fuel concerns. Gulf Ethanol Corporation had engaged Grubb & Ellis late last summer to find additional ethanol production sites in the southeast section of the state, and the company had targeted sweet sorghum at the time as a feedstock.

Previous to last summer, Gulf Ethanol has expressed interest in the cellulosic ethanol market, and was also pursuing sorghum related opportunities in Uruguay.

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Written by Jim Lane · Filed Under Producer News