Researchers debate sweet sorghum: higher yields, yet uneconomical due to short growing season
May 12, 2008
Researchers are looking more closely at sweet sorghum as a feedstock for ethanol, as the price of corn continues to soar. With yields of up to 600 gallons per acre, researchers at Oklahoma State and the University of Nebraska also say that sweet sorghum uses less water, and that leftover stalk, or bagasse, can be burned for electricity or converted to livestock feed. However, Robert P. Anex, of the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University, told RedOrbit that sweet sorghum’s single autumn crop in the northern plains states would be economically unfeasible. Sweet sorghum does not transport well.
In Mexico, the national government is close to issuing permits for ethanol produced from sorghum, according to the energy ministry. Mexico has recently implemented a law supporting the farming of renewable fuel crops; however the country has taken steps to distance its approach from controversial corn and sugar ethanol practices in the United States and Brazil.
Last year, President Calderon vetoed the Mexican biofuels bill, saying that it places too much emphasis on corn and sugarcane feedstocks. Mexico has been the subject of protects over the rising price of sweet white corn and the resulting impact on tortilla prices. The President called for a bill that placed more emphasis on algae and cellulosic biofuels. The President also said that the Ministry of Energy should be responsible for fuel production, transportation and marketing, instead of the Ministry of Agriculture.
In India, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), based in Hyderabad, said that sweet sorghum is ideal as a “food and fuel” crop for India, based on the plant providing 8 units of energy for every unit of fossil-fuel energy invested. The National Sorghum Producers’ research director added that India has a 4 Mgy sweet sorghum plan in operation and that China is planning a 40 Mgy facility. Sorghum is grown in hilly and semi-arid areas where food crops have low yields that are not commercially viable.
Tata Chemicals (TCL) recently said that it would join the Sweet Sorghum Ethanol Research Consortium. By joining the Consortium, TCL will have access to Consortium research, including cultivation best practices and superior hybrids. Earlier this month, Rusni Distilleries is planning to double its sweet sorghum ethanol capacity to 8 Mgy in March 2008, and Ultimate Bio Fuels has announced a 19 Mgy sweet sorghum facility in Visakhapatnam. The completion of the projects will increase India’s sweet sorgum ethanol capacity to 38 Mgy.
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