Biz Buzz

Corn and cooking oil are among the “biofuels” being used and promoted, and researchers are now looking into sweet sorghum.

The sugary sap inside the plant’s stalk can be turned into a “potent” biofuel, some experts say.

From the Associated Press:

Ethanol made from the stalk’s juice has four times the energy yield of the corn-based ethanol, which is already in the marketplace unlike sweet sorghum. Sweet sorghum produces about eight units of energy for every unit of energy used in its production. That’s about the same as sugarcane but four times as much as corn.

I think it can be a piece of the puzzle” as a biofuel crop, said Danielle Bellmer, executive secretary of the Sweet Sorghum Ethanol Association and an Oklahoma State University researcher studying ways to improve stalk pressing and fermentation methods. “The real issue is it’s just not a well-known crop.”

Currently about 10 million tons of grain from the tops of the plant’s stalks are harvested in the U.S., the world’s leading grower, but most of the sugar from the stalks goes to make syrup that people use to pour on biscuits, cook, and feed animals.

Sweet sorghum also spares the environment. Less fertilizer is needed than with corn and as a result there is less water contamination.

Sounds like a plan to me. Maybe if we back off corn for ethanol, we can see some relief on price pressures that are rippling through the economy.

But then, maybe the price of sugar will skyrocket…