Sweet Sorghum Ethanol

On farm production of ethanol could be a significant step in developing energy independence for American agriculture. Combined with solar and wind energy production, farming operations could be able to supply not only their own energy needs, but have excess energy to sell. In effect, they would become "energy farmers."

'Sweet' Biofuels Research Goes Down On The Farm

Science Daily — Oklahoma State University’s sorghum-related biofuels research is taking a localized approach, with the aim of making possible the effective production of ethanol in the farmer’s own field.

Sweet sorghum can be grown throughout temperate climate zones of the United States, including Oklahoma. It provides high biomass yield with low irrigation and fertilizer requirements. Corn ethanol, in contrast, requires significant amounts of water for growing and processing.

Best of all, producing ethanol from sweet sorghum is relatively easy, said Danielle Bellmer, biosystems engineer with the OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources’ Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Products Center.

“Just press the juice from the stalk, add yeast, allow fermentation to take place and you have ethanol,” Bellmer said. “Unfortunately, the simple sugars derived from sweet sorghum have to be fermented immediately.”(....)

Of course, farmers will need to develop some new skill sets. This might open opportunities for the entrepreneurial minded to offer in-field sweet sorghum processing as a service -- similar to custom harvesting.

The goal is to make production of ethanol from sweet sorghum economically viable by using an in-field processing system that minimizes transportation costs and capital investment.
Equipment such as the harvester and other technology could be owned individually or cooperatively with a number of producers sharing and possibly helping one another process ethanol from sweet sorghum.

In Oklahoma, the potential processing scenario might look like this: Plant sweet sorghum around mid-April, and then stagger plantings for two to three months. This would provide a harvest window of August through November.

“Ethanol yields in Oklahoma could range from 300 gallons to 600 gallons per acre, depending on biomass yield, sugar content and juice expression efficiency,” said Chad Godsey, biofuels team member and OSU Cooperative Extension cropping systems specialist with the department of plant and soil sciences.(....)

Three hundred to six hundred gallons per acre is a lot! On a quarter section of land that's 48,000 - 96,000 gallons of ethanol!

“We would like to do with sweet sorghum what the Brazilians have done with sugar cane: In Brazil, sugar cane ethanol provides a large percentage of their fuel needs,” Bellmer said.

The idea of using sweet sorghum for commercial ethanol production is not new. The reason sweet sorghum is not as popular as corn in terms of being a source of ethanol in the United States has been the need to ferment its simple sugars immediately and the high costs associated with a central processing plant that is operated only seasonally.

“By determining a process by which agricultural producers can create ethanol in the field from sweet sorghum, that barrier is removed,” Bellmer said. “Producers will then have a much higher value product to sell.”

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Oklahoma State University.

If the in-field processing technology becomes a reality, this could revolutionize the way farmers operate. A percentage of acreage in each annual crop rotation would need to be dedicated for fuel production. Excess fuel could then be transported to a central gathering facility. We would see a whole new market spring up with pricing based on quality grade, etc. Entrepreneurs get ready.