Domestic Fuel

Two companies have teamed up to develop advanced feedstocks for biofuels, biopower and biobased products.

The collaboration between DuPont and the bio-based firm NexSteppe will be working on new feedstocks for renewable energy, including sweet sorghum and high biomass sorghum hybrids.

Under the agreement, DuPont has made an equity investment in NexSteppe, and through its Pioneer Hi-Bred business, will provide knowledge, resources and advanced technologies to help the company accelerate the breeding and commercialization of new hybrids of these crops in the United States and Brazil.

“We’re using science-based innovation and collaboration to develop scalable, sustainable feedstock options for the biobased industries,” said John Bedbrook, vice president for DuPont Agricultural Biotechnology. “Collaborations like this one with NexSteppe will provide new opportunities for growers to address the rising demand for secure, environmentally sustainable and affordable alternatives to fossil fuels.”

“Sorghum is a crop with significant genetic diversity and great potential that has received relatively little research attention and funding,” said Anna Rath, NexSteppe founder and CEO. “Combining DuPont’s world-class research and development capabilities with our industry knowledge, experienced team and singular focus, we will be able to rapidly improve the crop to produce feedstocks tailored to the needs of the biofuels, biopower and biobased products industries.”

Sorghum has many advantages as a feedstock. It is naturally tolerant to both drought and heat and can grow in marginal rainfall areas with a short growing season and the ability to work in crop rotation systems. Sweet sorghum can be used as a complement to sugarcane in existing Brazilian sugar to ethanol mills, and as a feedstock for advanced biofuels and other biobased products produced from sugars. High Biomass Sorghum is a high-yielding crop that can be used as a feedstock for biopower and cellulosic biofuels. DuPont, through its Industrial Biosciences business, operates and develops industrial processes that use sugar as a feedstock.

Louisiana State University is getting $17 million from USDA to study how to turn sugar cane and sorghum into biofuels.

The project is one of the five announced yesterday by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, focused on developing aviation biofuels from various types of biomass. “We have an incredible opportunity to create thousands of new jobs and drive economic development in rural communities across America by continuing to build the framework for a competitively-priced, American-made biofuels industry,” said Vilsack. “Over the past two years, USDA has worked to help our nation develop a national biofuels economy that continues to help us out-innovate and out-compete the rest of the world while moving our nation toward a clean energy economy.”

Through new and existing industrial partnerships, this project will use energy cane and sorghum to help reinvigorate the Louisiana sugar and chemical industries.

This new project is in addition to a study funded this year at LSU by the Sorghum Checkoff to demonstrate sweet sorghum’s potential for significant yield in a relatively short growing period and its ability to be a steady feedstock supply for biorefineries through improved production management.

“Results from these studies would provide information producers need to most effectively plant and harvest sweet sorghum,” said Kun Jun Han, LSU sweet sorghum specialist. “It would also be useful to biofuel industry personnel when considering site locations, as well as local community leaders working to encourage biorefineries to locate in their area.”

From mid-March to May 2011, sweet sorghum was planted at two-week intervals and again during June and July. Some sweet sorghum will be harvested in the early seedhead development stage, which should allow for multiple harvests per year. Meanwhile, other sorghum plants will be harvested at the more traditional stage of late seed development. Results from both harvests will be studied to find which is most effective.

Read more.

In 2010 biomass and sugar testing programs, Chromatin sorghum hybrids have demonstrated top performance when compared to other materials from public, private and commercial sorghum collections. This according to a company press release. Chromatin is a biotechnology company and its subsidiary, Sorghum Partners, LLC, sells sorghum seed products to growers.

Several trials were conducted. In the first trial, 50 biomass sorghum hybrids were planted in four replicate plots and tested for total yield, moisture, energy, and ash content. In a second trial, Chromatin tested 50 types of sweet sorghum, measuring total biomass yield and fermentable carbohydrate in harvested juice. The results of the trials have indicated that Chromatin’s hybrids provide the three top-yielding biomass sorghum hybrids. In addition, these hybrids also demonstrated very high energy content (BTU’s), low ash content and low moisture retention. Another notable characteristic – several of the company’s hybrid’s generated more fermentable sugar per acre than many of the competitors.

“These results are highly significant,” said Dave Jessen, Chromatin’s CTO. “With a range in the biomass testing program of 18.8 to 4.3 dry tons per acre (entry mean = 10.6), we are very confident that our best materials will deliver superior biomass yields. Further, two of our sorghum hybrids have sugar yields per acre that surpass many sweet sorghum cultivars that are used today.”

While the test were conducted in small scale, Jessen is confident that the company’s hybrids will still perform as well on larger scale tests.

“These tests show that our biomass has a combination of qualities that are high priority for thermochemical processors, and that our sweet sorghum provide solutions that can meet today’s growing demand for soluble sugar,” said Daphne Preuss, CEO of Chromatin. “BTU values ranged over $1000 / acre between the biomass at the extremes in the trial. This clearly shows that a key economic driver for cleantech projects will be the ability to access a high-performance feedstock.”

California Ethanol & Power (CE&P) has commissioned a study to better understand the role sugarcane and sweet sorghum may play in producing ethanol and electricity for the state of California. The Economic Impact Analysis report was conducted by Solution Mountain, Inc., and sponsored in part by the Imperial Valley Economic Development Corporation along with the California Association for Local Economic Development. The goal of the report was to ascertain the economic relationship of construction-related activities and ongoing business operations with respect to jobs, gross economic output, capital income and taxes as part of CE&P’s sugarcane and sweet sorghum-to-ethanol and electricity program.

“CE&P will provide substantial economic stimulus and benefits to Imperial County, CA, which has recently shown the highest unemployment rate and lowest economic health rating in the U.S,” said Dave Rubenstein, Chief Operating Officer.

According to the analysis, the estimated benefits, measured through the construction phases and the first year of operation of CE&P’s initial plant are $946 million of gross economic output, $562 million of gross county product, $334 million of total labor income, 8,847 full and part time direct and indirect jobs, capital income of $182 million, and indirect business taxes and fees totaling $46 million, with a projected total five-year impact of more than $2 billion.

CE&P’s business strategy is to own and operate facilities that will convert sugarcane grown year round on 40,000 acres and seasonally gown sweet sorghum on 30,000 acres producing 55 million gallons of ethanol, 40.9 megawatts of electricity, and 880 million cubic feet of bio-methane per year.

Registration is now open for the 16th Annual Commodity Classic in Tampa, March 3-5.

The annual event will be “smooth sailing” for soybean, corn, wheat and sorghum farmers and biofuels will be a big part of the event, as always.

Growers who attend the 2011 Commodity Classic are sure to benefit from the value of attending a trade show with more than 800 booths representing today’s leading agricultural equipment, technology, product and service companies and organizations.

“While enjoying the warm Florida sun, one can learn of new products and methods to increase the profitability of their farm,” said Commodity Classic Co-Chair Charles Cannatella. “As a producer of all the commodities represented at Commodity Classic, I look forward to attending the policy development sessions. A grower can strengthen his industry by helping to set policy.”

Special entertainment at Classic this year is Little River Band and the jam-packed schedule includes educational sessions, technology demonstrations, association banquets, entertainment events and important networking opportunities.

A Cincinnati-based advanced biofuel technology company has announced the development of its next generation, sugar-based fuel ethanol process.

According to AdvanceBio LLC, the process is capable of utilizing sugars derived from sugar cane, sweet sorghum, sugar beet and other similar crops as feedstock for the production of fuel ethanol and green power while generating zero liquid waste.

When built in conjunction with the sugar milling operation, plants employing AdvanceBio’s sugar-based ethanol process will have the same, low-greenhouse gas footprint found in Brazil’s existing cane-based fuel ethanol industry. “The facilities will be extremely self-sufficient. In addition to eliminating costs associated with outside sources of fossil fuels, power and process water, our technology eliminates the need for extensive waste treatment processes and the cost of transporting large volumes of liquid vinasse back to the cane fields. These ethanol production facilities will also meet stringent U.S. pollution and occupational safety regulations,” said Dale Monceaux, Principal.

AdvanceBio envisions that producing fuel ethanol by processing cane and sweet sorghum feedstocks will serve to supplement corn as the country transitions to cellulosic ethanol and beyond. Currently, U.S. legislation establishes a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requiring the production of 36 billion gpy of renewable fuels by 2022. Of this total, 15 billion gpy is designated as a cellulosic ethanol requirement.

Read more here.

Ethanol organization Growth Energy is proposing a redirection and eventual phasing out of government support for ethanol in return for increasing infrastructure investment that would level the playing field with fossil fuels and give consumers true freedom to choose their fuel.

Specifically, the “Fueling Freedom” plan calls for funds currently going to the oil industry as an incentive for blending ethanol into gasoline (the VEETC) to be redirected to provide backing for the build out of distribution infrastructure for ethanol – such as tax credits for retailers to install 200,000 blender pumps and federal backing of ethanol pipelines – and requiring that all automobiles sold in the U.S. be flex-fuel vehicles – as many as 120 million.

“We often hear, if Brazil can do it, why can’t we?” said Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis during a press conference this morning. “Well, Brazil has a built-out infrastructure. We need to do the same.”

Listen to the entire press conference here: Growth Energy Press Conference

POET CEO Jeff Broin, Growth Energy Co-Chairman, believes the time has come to transition to an open market where consumers can choose their fuel. “With a blender pump in every neighborhood and a Flex Fuel Vehicle in every garage, ethanol can compete,” Broin said. He notes that the U.S. ethanol industry produces more energy for America’s motorists than Saudi Arabia and that ethanol is already competitive with gasoline, averaging 50 to 80 cents below the cost of gasoline this year.

Growth Energy advisory board member and former congressman Jim Nussle says they certainly support the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit or VEETC, otherwise known as the blenders tax credit, but it may be time to try something different. “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got,” Nussle said. “If we shift the emphasis from VEETC to building out infrastructure, we will reap benefits.” The organization plans to talk with policy makers over the coming weeks in the hopes of selling the idea and possibly including it in an energy bill. “The policy makers are begging us for creativity now,” said Nussle.

However, the plan might be a hard sell on Capitol Hill without the backing of the entire ethanol industry, and that looks unlikely at the moment. The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), the National Sorghum Producers, and the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) together issued a press release following the Growth Energy announcement reaffirming support for the extension of current ethanol tax incentives through 2015. ACE Executive Vice President Brian Jennings says it’s too late to consider alternatives this year. “We have talked to policymakers about alternatives to VEETC. The universal response we have received from our champions on Capitol Hill is that while some of those alternatives are interesting, those alternatives cannot possibly be adopted at this stage in the legislative calendar, with just about 30 days remaining until Congress adjourns for the mid-term elections,” said Jennnings.

Read comments from ACE, AFBF, NCGA, NSP, and RFA here.

An Illinois biotech company is working on the development of sorghum varieties specifically suited for energy production.

Chromatin, Inc. CEO Daphne Preuss told the Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. this week that the company is expanding its technology development portfolio to produce fit-for-purpose sorghum as a renewable feedstock for the biofuels, green power and renewable chemicals sectors.

“Feedstock quality and compositional attributes are key drivers of efficiencies for industrial bioprocessors, and whether the process requires starch, sugar or lignocellulose, we believe sorghum makes an ideal platform for feedstock development,” said Preuss. “By applying our proven and innovative technology portfolio to this plant, we will provide energy crops and value-added products that are uniquely suited for a broad range of applications, precisely matched to the needs of bioprocessors,” she said.

Chromatin plans to build and commercialize its sorghum product portfolio to optimize sorghum for specific bioprocessors’ needs.

An Iowa inventor and entrepreneur is promoting a harvester he developed that can produce ethanol from sweet sorghum right in the field.

Lee McClune of Knoxville, Iowa invented the SORGANOL® Process (PatPend) and Sor-Cane Harvester after studying research done at Iowa State University in the 80s on the potential of producing ethanol from sorghum. According to McClune, the harvester acidifies and filters the juice from the sorghum stalks as they are harvested. “The appropriate yeast agents are added or metered in as the juice is pumped from the transporter into the storage containers,” he explains in a promotional brochure. “A few hours later the sugar conversion to ethanol is complete.” McClure claims some varieties of sweet sorghum can produce as much as 1000 gallons of ethanol per acre and he calls it “America’s Sugarcane Ethanol.”

Oklahoma State University started studying the process a couple of years ago and found some merit to the concept of actually fermenting the juice in the field to make ethanol. McClune believes the process can be utilized to make ethanol production more sustainable and potentially even carbon-neutral.

For more information, contact McClune at leemcclune@hotmail.com.

Today, about 1/3 of the sorghum crop goes into ethanol production. An interesting little piece of information I picked up when I spoke with Gerald Simonsen, the Chairman of the National Sorghum Producers during Commodity Classic. Sorghum is a good feedstock for ethanol production for several reasons. First, it uses half the amount of water used in corn production and second, the sugar-based sorghums, like sweet sorghum and energy sorghums produce more ethanol per acre than other starch-based feedstocks.

Simonsen told me that his organization is very focused on the ethanol industry not only from a research, development and marketing standpoint, but also policy. The RFS2 rules were recently announced and Simonsen said that while they were happy to be included, they do have a few issues with some of the things said about sorghum. Therefore, his organization is working with the USDA and EPA to “iron out some of the rough edges and make sure sorghum has a viable future in ethanol.”

Currently, you can produce the same amount of ethanol from a bushel of corn or ethanol. However, Simonsen noted, you can also make sugar-based ethanol out of sweet sorghum and in terms of cellulosic ethanol, energy sorghum and forage sorghum are feedstocks that the US Department of Energy is excited about. These types of feedstocks produce more ethanol from a bushel of sorghum than what we’re seeing today.

“We have a three-way punch. We’ve got the whole ethanol thing surrounded. We just have to bring it together and move forward,” concluded Simonsen.

You can listen to my interview with Gerald below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.8MB)

Representatives of the National Sorghum Producers (NSP) witnessed a pilot test of bioenergy sorghum at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) this week.

NSP collaborated with NREL to provide almost 100 different sorghum samples for testing, eventually choosing two for pilot testing. The resulting data shows that high biomass forage sorghum demonstrates great potential to fit into cellulosic ethanol conversion. Sorghum varieties have a wide range of basic sugars and structure which could ultimately meet the needs of multiple biofuel systems.

Colorado sorghum farmer Terry Swanson, Vice Chairman of the NSP Board of Directors, is pleased with the NREL research because of potential it holds for both the nation and sorghum producers. “Renewable energy will play a critical role in the future of our nation’s quest for energy independence, and the work NREL is doing will help the sorghum industry establish itself as a major contributor to that cause,” said Swanson.

The test this week showcased three years of bioenergy sorghum research that was made possible by a Department of Energy grant obtained through NSP’s efforts.

Researchers at Salisbury University in Maryland are studying the potential for growing sweet sorghum for cellulosic ethanol in the state.

Since May, eight sweet sorghum varieties have been growing on a Wicomico County farm for evaluation as potential stock for ethanol production on the Delmarva peninsula. Dr. Samuel Geleta of Salisbury Univerisity’s Biological Sciences Department says about half of the varieties have already been harvested, with the rest to be finished by mid-October. Some of the plants grew to a height of 12 feet. He said sweet sorghum is attractive because it is drought resistant, fast-growing and has low nutrient and fertilization requirements. “Sweet sorghum can be grown on marginal land with less fertilizer and water as compared to corn,” Geleta said. “Since sweet sorghum juice contains simple sugar, producing ethanol from it simply requires extracting the juice and fermenting.”

Recently, Dr. Geleta (pictured on the right) showed his work to some of Maryland’s state legislators – (LtoR) Addie Eckardt, Jim Mathias and Rudy Cane. The study is being funded by the Maryland Grain Producers Utilization Board and spearheaded by the Delmarva Sweet Sorghum for Ethanol Group.

National commodity organizations representing growers of corn, soybeans, wheat and sorghum gathered together for the first time as one group last week in Grapevine, Texas at the annual Commodity Classic. Corn and soybean growers have been together as one for the past 14 years, wheat joined the group last year, and sorghum made four this year.

Renewable fuels were a major topic of discussion throughout the week-long conference and were addressed during the general session on Friday. Emcee Mark Mayfield (left) talked with each of them – National Sorghum Producers chairman Toby Bostwick, National Association of Wheat Growers president David Cleavinger, National Corn Growers Association president Bob Dickey, and American Soybean Association president Johnny Dodson.

“One of the key issues ASA will be working on in the coming year is the extension of our biodiesel tax incentive,” said Dodson. “Biodiesel has been a win-win for the agriculture community and the average consumer.”

Bob Dickey with NCGA said making sure the Renewable Fuels Standard is implemented and maintained is one of their top legislative priorities for this year and said they will be working with the ethanol industry to increase the blend rate for ethanol. “We are supportive of higher blend rates based on sound science, provided the EPA goes along with it,” he said.

USDA’s World Agricultural Supply Demand report for February projects more sorghum to be used for ethanol.

According to the report, sorghum food, seed, and industrial use is projected 40 million bushels higher based on indications of increased sorghum use by ethanol plants in the Southern and Central Plains.

The report also noted that ethanol blender and producer margins have recently improved and weekly production of gasoline blends with ethanol has risen. The projected season-average farm price range for corn is narrowed 10 cents on each end to $3.65 to $4.15 per bushel.

Globally, USDA reports coarse grain supplies for 2008/09 are lowered 0.9 million tons this month with reductions in corn production for South America and India and world corn production for 2008/09 is lowered by 4.6 million tons.