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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Houma, Louisiana » Sugarcane Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #224543
Title: Sugar Canes as Bioenergy Feedstocks

Author
item Richard Jr, Edward

Submitted to: Professional Agricultural Workers Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/11/2008
Publication Date: 12/20/2008
Citation: Richard, Jr., E.P. 2008. Sugar Canes as Bioenergy Feedstocks. In: Tackie, N.O., Zabawa, R., Baharanyi, N., and Hill, W., editors. Energy, Food and Fiber Alternatives: Opportunities for Underserved Communities. Proceedings of the 65th Annual Professional Agricultural Workers Conference, December 2-4, 2007, Tuskegee, Alabama. p. 4-8.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The sugar cane crops currently being grown in the South can play a role in helping the United States meet its need for both renewable transportation fuel and food and feed. Research being conducted at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service’s Sugarcane Research Laboratory at Houma, Louisiana is geared to developing high biomass (sugar and cellulose) yielding sugarcane varieties with levels of cold tolerance that will allow an expansion of the geographic range of adaptation to areas of the South beyond where sugarcane is traditionally grown. The use of companion cane-type grasses is also being explored to further extend both the harvesting and processing seasons. These include: sweet sorghum, sorghum x sudangrass forage hybrids, and herbaceous perennials from the Miscanthus and Erianthus genera that don’t produce sugar but are closely related to sugarcane. All of these feedstocks can be harvested with conventional sugarcane harvesting equipment and are highly efficient in converting sunlight to biomass with fertilizer and moisture requirements that are lower than those currently required to produce corn. The planting of one or more of these feedstocks, especially those containing sugar, may be advantageous to both the large and small farmers of the United States to insure their continued economic sustainability. In the case of the smaller farmer, this may be for on-farm use through the conversion of the sugar into ethanol for fuel and, in the short term, the burning of the remaining cellulose (bagasse) for heat.