Could Sorghum be the Next Bioenergy Crop?

Sweet and biomass sorghum and sweet sorghum juice sugars could be the next source of of bio fuel production.

A collaborative study was done and found a significant increase in ethanol production from a combination of sweet sorghum juice and corn mash.  Sorghum Checkoff made the announcement in collaboration with  the National Corn-To-Ethanol Research Center at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.

The study evaluated the levels of ethanol yields under conditions similar to what fuel ethanol industries use.  Sorghum sugar juice proved to be a successful replacement for processed water.  This could lead to an increase in corn ethanol production.

In a separate study, they found sweet and biomass sorghum would meet the need for next generation bio fuels that would environmentally sustainable.

Scientist from Purdue, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Illinois and Cornell University conducted the study.  In a report published in Biofuels, Bioproducts & Biorefining, researches believe sorghum can benefit from the rail system, grain elevators and corn ethanol processing facilities already in place.

"The Midwest is uniquely poised to get the biorefining going on cellulose," reports Nick Caprita, a Purdue professor of botany and plant pathology, in a interview with South West Farm Press.  "As we move to different fuels beyond ethanol, the ethanol plants of today are equipped to take advantage of new bioenergy crops."

Sorghum could become a larger part of a national bioenergy plan.  Cliff Weil, a Purdue professor of agronomy, said some types of sorghum would require fewer inputs and could be grown on marginal lands.

"In the near future, we need a feedstock that's not corn," Weil reported.  "Sweet and biomass sorghum meet all the criteria.  They use less nitrogen, grow well and grow where other things don't grow."

One of the many advantages of sorghum is there would be less of a need for nitrogen.  Corn has been bred to produce a maximum amount of seed requiring a lot of nitrogen.  But sorghum could be genetically developed in a way to maximize cellulose, minimizes seeds and inputs.

"If you're just producing biomass and not seed, you don't need as much nitrogen," Caprita said.