Scientists Developing Sorghum for Biofuel

Scientists Developing Sorghum for Biofuel



October 2007

 American cars and trucks 
may soon be fueled with sorghum. Not used widely as a food grain in the 
United States, sorghum is one of the five top cereal crops in the world, 
along with wheat, oats, corn, and barley. It was cultivated in Egypt in 
ancient times, and Africa still is the largest producer of sorghum today. 
Now, energy crop company Ceres, Inc. and the Texas Agricultural Experiment 
Station of the Texas A&M University system have entered into a joint 
research and commercial agreement for high biomass sorghum. 
These plants are not designed to produce grain, although they do produce 
it. The real value is that sorghum can be bred to produce vast amounts of 
biomass, the raw material for cellulosic biofuels made from stems, stalks 
and leaves. 
Presently, sorghum-to-ethanol production uses the grain part of the plant, 
but the leaves and stalks hold the greatest potential for biofuel 
production, says Peter Mascia, Ceres vice president of product 
development. 
He says new technologies are making it possible to utilize the 
carbohydrates found in plant cell walls, called cellulose, to make 
cellulosic ethanol. 
"As these technologies mature, farmers will transition from growing as 
much grain per acre to producing as much biomass as they can per acre, 
with as little energy and agronomic inputs as possible. This means new 
crops and specialized hybrids like these high-biomass sorghum types will 
be needed," Mascia said. 
Plant scientist Dr. Bill Rooney of the A&M System's Texas Agricultural 
Experiment Station, TAES, says that sorghum is a near-ideal crop for 
cellulosic biofuels. 
"Sorghum produces high yields, is naturally drought tolerant and can 
thrive in places that do not support corn and other food crops, he said. 
Sorghum also fits into established production systems and is harvested the 
year it is planted, unlike perennial grasses, so it fits well in a crop 
mix with perennial species and existing crops, like cotton," said Rooney. 
A pioneer in developing high-biomass sorghum, Rooney's plants can approach 
20 feet under favorable conditions, he says, and could produce more than 
2,000 gallons of ethanol per acre. That's more than four times the current 
starch-to-ethanol process. 
To accelerate product development, Ceres and the Texas A&M team will work 
together to expand their breeding efforts by using markers. 
Markers allow plant breeders to identify useful traits in seed tissue or 
when plants are still seedlings. Large numbers of markers provide a 
roadmap of the sorghum genome, cutting years off development timelines for 
new products, and making it easier to improve the makeup of the plants to 
facilitate processing. 
"Markers and biotechnology will be crucial for developing sorghum for 
cellulosic biofuels," says Rooney. 
Mascia said Ceres has Texas-sized expectations for the collaboration. 
"When we combine their resources with our high-throughput trait 
development capabilities, we believe we can double the rate of improvement 
to biomass yields, while expanding the range of the crop for earlier 
planting in cooler and drier conditions, especially on so-called marginal 
or unproductive land," said Mascia. 
He expects that commercial quantities of the initial hybrids will be 
available in time to meet the requirements of the first cellulosic 
biorefineries currently being planned. 
The Poet company is in the initial stages of developing a commercial 
cellulosic ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa, company executives announced 
last week. The facility is expected to begin operation in 2011. Five other 
companies are also in the early planning stages of cellulosic ethanol 
production. 
As part of the agreement with TAES signed last week, Ceres will obtain 
exclusive commercialization rights to TAES's high biomass sorghum hybrids 
developed in the joint research program. 
The TAES program will receive royalties as well as financial and 
technology support from Ceres. Other aspects of the collaboration were not 
disclosed. 
"This agreement between Ceres and TAES is a great model of how research 
institutions and the private sector can collaborate to accelerate existing 
research programs to solve our country's future energy needs," said Dr. 
Mark Hussey, director of TAES. 
"Having our scientists work jointly on future bioenergy research is a 
win-win situation for both TAES and Ceres, and will help meet the growing 
demand for biofuels through the development of cellulosic feedstocks." 

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