Sorghum to Ethanol Research Initiative: Cooperative Research and Development Final Report, CRADA Number CRD-08-291

Wolfrum, E.

关键词: AGRICULTURAL WASTES;    BIOMASS;    CROPS;    ECONOMICS;    ETHANOL;    GENETICS;    LIFE CYCLE;    MAIZE;    PRODUCTION;    SORGHUM CRADA;    Commercialization and Technology Transfer;    Bioenergy;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1029015
RP-ID  :  NREL/TP-7A10-52695
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1029015
Others  :  TRN: US201201%%77

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

The goal of this project was to investigate the feasibility of using sorghum to produce ethanol. The work performed included a detailed examination of the agronomics and composition of a large number of sorghum varieties, laboratory experiments to convert sorghum to ethanol, and economic and life-cycle analyses of the sorghum-to-ethanol process. This work showed that sorghum has a very wide range of composition, which depended on the specific sorghum cultivar as well as the growing conditions. The results of laboratory- and pilot-scale experiments indicated that a typical high-biomass sorghum variety performed very similarly to corn stover during the multi-step process required to convert biomass feedstocks to ethanol; yields of ethanol for sorghum were very similar to the corn stover used as a control in these experiments. Based on multi-year agronomic data and theoretical ethanol production, sorghum can achieve more than 1,300 gallons of ethanol per acre given the correct genetics and environment. In summary, sorghum may be a compelling dedicated bioenergy crop that could help provide a portion of the feedstocks required to produce renewable domestic transportation fuels.