The idea of Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources is receiving massive attention in industrialised countries. The US government is providing substantial funding for research into alternative crop plants that can provide biomass, and for developing new technologies through private-public-academic partnerships. Forage sorghum is one crop targeted as a source of biomass.
Concerns about biofuel’s impact on food security have led industry to shift its focus from food-crop feedstocks to biomass. The US’s Energy Act has called for a target of 64 billion litres of biofuel per year from biomass. By 2022, 140 billion litres of biofuel a year must be produced to replace petrol in vehicles.
Biomass crops contain celluloses that reinforce cell walls and need to be converted to sugars, then into ethanol. This is considered a more complex way of obtaining ethanol, but celluloses contain much more energy than grain starches.
One of the present partnerships involves two companies and one university. One company has expertise in genetics, breeding and seed production of candidate crops for biomass, the second company is involved in building biofuel plants, and the university is breeding special forage sorghum varieties. Experimental sorghum lines can reach heights of 6m and produce enough biomass for 20 000â„“/ha of ethanol. South Africa may soon partner with the EU in joint research into sorghum for biofuel. – Wynand van der Walt ([email protected])
Sources: Ceres Inc., ICM Inc. websites. |fw
