Sweet sorghum Vs. Sugar cane (3 posts)

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  • Denis Picco said 4 years, 1 month ago:

    The cultivation of sugarcane in Europe is not so simple and practicable. There is no varieties, or only few ones with no high production levels, that could growth in a interesting way in the Mediterranean area. So there is not a possible competition between sugar cane and sweet sorghum.
    But in other area, as in Brasil, there is a lot of interest in this topic. There is different seed companies and research institutes that are involved in the develop of new varieties of sweet sorghum in order to cultivate this annual crop instead of sugar cane. And this researches could be interesting also for the European agricultural areas.

    CERES website (http://www.ceres.net) there is a short report in which are shown the Sweet Sorghum advantages that differentiate it from sugar cane.
    • Sorghum complements the production of sugar cane and is an ideal raw material for ethanol production. The sweet sorghum grows quickly, using less water and fertilizer and sugar reaches peak in different seasons. Moreover, in many cases the sorghum can produce sugar at a cost equivalent to the cane.
    • With the use of seeds, sorghum can be grown in rotation with other crops planted in annual and potentially non-cultivated areas as well as lands where sugar cane is not well suited. This flexibility is due, in part, be a sorghum plant natural features strong and rapid growth.
    • The plants usually reach maturity between 90 to 120 days , with potential for further cuts after the first harvest. Cane sorghum can be harvested even in times of high humidity provided that care be taken with the root system. And since sugar accumulates around the center of the plant can be cut at a greater distance from the soil, which reduces the dirt on the material collected.

    So, Sweet Sorghum can be used for biofuel production and, in many locations, can be used to extend the period of cultivation of sugarcane. Sweet sorghum can be grown as a supplement to sugar cane in marginal areas or in crop rotation with sugarcane, expanding production capacity.
    Sweet sorghum can also be competitive with sugarcane for biofuel production, given the spread of seeds, larger biomass and faster growth of output.
    It is important for the European model to know other bioethanol production models and try to the understand its new future challenges, in order to define new development lines. The development of new varieties of sweet sorghum could be also useful for example to extent the biomass harvesting period or the sugar content of the stems.

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  • Alessia Vecchiet said 4 years, 1 month ago:

    Sugar cane is the most important sugar-to-bioethanol cultivation, mainly in South America. The areale of cultivation of sugar cane is at warm and humid climates, and for this reason EU is not suitable for this cultivation. But bioethanol can be easily produced using sweet sorghum, also transferring the methods for harvesting and processing sugar cane to sorghum crop. As Denis said, there are many advantages in cultivating sweet sorghum, and for this reason we are pushing on the diffusion of sweet sorghum in Europe, where the areas of Southern regions fit for this purpose. The bioethanol production could be based on this crop in EU, where sugarcane is not cultivable.
    In Asia, in particular in India, sugarcane is cultivated but they are already cultivating also sweet sorghum for bioethanol production purposes. The same in the Philippines and China. For this reason, the suggestion of trying to integrate sweet sorghum also in South america, complementary to sugarcane is a really good strategy for the water saving and the simplicity of cultivation.

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  • Oscar Leòn said 4 years, 1 month ago:

    In fact, in our last travel in Peru, we spoke with several farmers in Piura that work with sweet sorghum. At the end, each crop has its own advantages. Of course the application of Sweet Sorghum as raw material is going to be more suitable in Europe, because the “other alternatives” are cereals or sugar beets, both cases with a poorer energetic balance. From my point of view, this crop must be one of the most important for bioethanol production in Europe if we can solve the problem of the temporality of the production. Better than beet because is generated a lot of biomass that can be used for energy production in the same plant, and better than cereals because is used less energy due to is not necesary the hydrolysis and can be obtained a lot of biomass in the same land.
    Of course, if we want to compare sweet sorghum with sugar cane in Latin America… in this case, the promotion will be able to be if exist a complementary between Sweet Sorghum and Sugar Cane to produce bioethanol in the same factory.

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