The Future of Ethanol

Sweet sorghum is a much better ethanol feed stock than corn or switchgrass cellulose. Sweet sorghum has been grown in the US midwest for over a hundred years, originally for molasses as a substitute for cane sugar. It can produce almost as much sugar as cane and it grows well anywhere that corn can be grown. In fact, it requires less water, fertilizer, pesticides, and human attention than corn and can be grown profitably where corn cannot.

The same machinery used to produce alcohols from sugar cane can be used with sweet sorghum. Its waste material after juice extraction can be used in the same way as sugar cane waste. Cattle like to eat the waste cellulose and it can also be used to produce more ethanol, etc. Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and VeraSun Energy (VSE) do not have to go to Brazil to start producing ethanol from sugar cane. Instead, they should talk to farmers about producing sweet sorghum instead of corn. In India, ethanol is already being produced from sweet sorghum. The CEOs running U.S. companies may think that they needed a few million Indian immigrants to handle their Y2K disaster, but surely our farmers can still grow sweet sorghum.

The vehicles and fuels we should use in the future are not simply covered by the plug-in label, either. In Brazil, they have been using around 25% ethanol blends in vehicles made in Detroit for many years. E85 gets poor mileage in Detroit’s current flex-fuel vehicles because of their low compression ratios. Ford (F) is starting to use turbo charging to get better MPG in their vehicles. This should allow us to use more alcohol fuels in our transition from OPEC terrorist oil dependence to domestic solutions and electric vehicles.

The GM (GM) Volt extended range electric vehicle is still scheduled to come out in 2010. Advances in the nano technology used to produce new batteries should allow us to replace the majority of our internal combustion engine vehicles in ten or twenty years.

Economically producing green electric power and developing smart electric grids to deliver it are also possible now. And the alcohol we produce for fuel can also be used to produce the chemicals including plastics that we will always need. ADM has already committed to producing biodegradable plastic from biomass. If the scientists of the world can just get our politicians to listen instead of leading society on their next wild goose chase, our future should be bright.

Disclosure: Author owns a small amount of ADM stock.

Comments

[redbaron:]

John, please define the term 'Sweet Sorghum'. Is this the tall (6ft.) 'cane' I saw being grown for cattle feed in Kansas when I grew up in the 1940-50's? Or is this the shorter version, 'Milo', grown all over the western Midwest for grain? The terminology is causing some confusion in my mind. Many thanks!

I worked in the feed industry for several decades, and if I don't understand the terminology, there must be many others in the same category.

2008 Nov 13 07:56 AM

[SubsidyEye:]

John, if sweet sorghum is such a great idea, then why are 99% of the existing ethanol plants based on corn? Surely a company like ADM or VSE would have not been dumb enough to have overlooked the biofuel equivalent of money lying on the table.

2008 Nov 13 08:54 AM

[Tim Plaehn:]

Mr Eye. Can't pick sorghum with a corn picker. Farmers each have million of dollars tied up in equipment to plant and harvest corn. It is what midwest American farmers have been doing since the self-cleaning plow was invented. How many farmers are you willing to subsidize to change over their machinery to plant and harvest another crop?

2008 Nov 13 09:28 AM

[cdcaddy:]

One word - lobbyists
look at how even Obama is in the tank for corn ethanol...dismissing the idea of doing away with the 54 cent tariff on cane ethanol...


On Nov 13 08:54 AM Subsidy Eye wrote:

> John, if sweet sorghum is such a great idea, then why are 99% of
> the existing ethanol plants based on corn? Surely a company like
> ADM or VSE would have not been dumb enough to have overlooked the
> biofuel equivalent of money lying on the table.

2008 Nov 13 09:43 AM

[daddypowers:]

A fair article would also include the hurdles that need to be overcome to use sweet sorghum. There are many and people are working on them. I'm weary of people saying, "let's use this or that instead of corn" without addressing the problems. Also, any crop planted to take the place of corn will take acres of corn out of production, so there will still be less corn.

2008 Nov 13 10:59 AM

[Rikiki:]

>Redbaron

I believe that the following link is where author got most of info on "sweet" sorghum. Milo is a short, seed variety popular in central and southern US grown mainly for the feed you are already familiar with.

www.agribusinessweek.c.../

Rikiki

2008 Nov 13 12:08 PM

[SubsidyEye:]

Tim: obviously, I'm not willing to subsidize any corn farmers to change over their machinery to plant and harvest sorghum. I was simply trying to see what Adam's answer to the question would be. These kind of articles are wearisome, because they suggest that there is the proverbial money on the table that companies are not picking up. Your answer makes sense, Tim. But one has to wonder why it did not occur to John Adam.

2008 Nov 13 03:59 PM

[Bhargav:]

There are plenty of misconceptions out here about sweet sorghum.

I have been working on Sweet Sorghum to ethanol projects for the past 4 years. Currently, India has the only Sweet Sorghum to Ethanol facilities in the world. It produces 50klpd and went online 3 months ago (this is hardly a commercial quantity)

While a number of business plans exists to produce ethanol utilizing Sweet Sorghum here in the US, most of them have no operational experience in handling Sweet Sorghum as a feedstock.


On Nov 13 07:56 AM redbaron wrote:

> John, please define the term 'Sweet Sorghum'. Is this the tall (6ft.)
> 'cane' I saw being grown for cattle feed in Kansas when I grew up
> in the 1940-50's? Or is this the shorter version, 'Milo', grown
> all over the western Midwest for grain? The terminology is causing
> some confusion in my mind. Many thanks!
>
> I worked in the feed industry for several decades, and if I don't
> understand the terminology, there must be many others in the same
> category.

2008 Nov 14 05:43 PM

[National So...:]

Very simply, there are three major types of sorghum that can be used in ethanol production.

1. Grain sorghum (aka milo) - grown in the center “belt” of the nation and currently used interchangeably with corn for starch based ethanol production.

2. Sweet sorghum - grown in the warmer Southern regions of the U.S. Sweet sorghum is being used for ethanol production in India but the market scale production of sweet sorghum ethanol in the U.S. is not yet reality because of logistics issues. Oklahoma State University is researching harvest and in-field distillation equipment.

3. Cellulosic or energy sorghum - used in ethanol production schemes for its high biomass. These plants can be 10 or more feet tall and can be grown all over the U.S.

For more information, visit the National Sorghum Producers website at sorghumgrowers.com.

2008 Nov 17 10:28 AM

[John Adam:]

If you had bothered to read the links in my article you would have seen reference to new hybrid versions for use in India and other countries including the U.S.A. In the 19th century farmers in the Northern USA used molasses instead of expensive cane sugar. The people that run ADM very likely never heard of molasses from sweet sorghum. ADM first made inexpensive corn sweetener then ethanol. I doubt that the head executives at ADM know much about US agriculture or its history.

In Kentucky they produced over 1 million gallons of sorghum molasses in 1899. They used 1899 varieties that produced more juice than grain and harvested it with horse power and the implements they had then. They processed it like they process sugar cane now in Brazil, but with ancient equipment. When I was growing up I did listen to what my elders had to say even if some of them were old farmers.

I could mention another plant that George Washington grew and produced numerous products like sorghum, but you people would go crazy. That plant is another potential huge source for cellulose to sugar for butanol, ethanol, etc. It was also used for sails of ships and rope and also for its edible seeds. New varieties of this plant are grown all over the Earth, but not in the USA.

History is important. If you know how to feed questions to a search engine you can find answers on the WWW.



On Nov 17 10:28 AM National Sorghum Producers wrote:

> Very simply, there are three major types of sorghum that can be used
> in ethanol production.
>
> 1. Grain sorghum (aka milo) - grown in the center “belt” of the nation
> and currently used interchangeably with corn for starch based ethanol
> production.
>
> 2. Sweet sorghum - grown in the warmer Southern regions of the U.S.
> Sweet sorghum is being used for ethanol production in India but the
> market scale production of sweet sorghum ethanol in the U.S. is not
> yet reality because of logistics issues. Oklahoma State University
> is researching harvest and in-field distillation equipment.
>
> 3. Cellulosic or energy sorghum - used in ethanol production schemes
> for its high biomass. These plants can be 10 or more feet tall and
> can be grown all over the U.S.
>
> For more information, visit the National Sorghum Producers website
> at sorghumgrowers.com.

2008 Dec 08 06:22 PM