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posted by Fnord666 on Friday December 15 2017, @07:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the good-smelling-exhaust dept.

Feed your cattle, fuel your Mustang:

Sweet sorghum is not just for breakfast anymore. Although sorghum is a source for table syrup, scientists see a future in which we convert sorghum to biofuel, rather than relying on fossil fuel. That potential just grew as University of Florida researchers found three UF/IFAS-developed sorghum varieties could produce up to 1,000 gallons of ethanol per acre.

"Sweet sorghum has the potential to be an effective feedstock for ethanol production," said Wilfred Vermerris, a UF/IFAS professor of microbiology and cell science and a co-author on the study.

Ethanol produced from sweet sorghum can be used for auto and jet fuel, UF/IFAS researchers said.

UF/IFAS researchers picture big fuel potential from sorghum partly because it's so abundant. Sorghum is the fifth largest cereal crop in the world and the third largest in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2014, the U.S. was the largest producer of sorghum in the world.

UF/IFAS scientists like sorghum because it can be cultivated twice a year in Florida, requires little fertilizer, uses water efficiently and can be drought resistant, UF/IFAS research shows.

Combine this with terra preta to get more harvests per year and they might have something.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by requerdanos on Friday December 15 2017, @08:35PM

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Friday December 15 2017, @08:35PM (#610441) Journal

    So to get to the sustainable green utopia, who dies? Why is it that every plan for a utopia always seems to begin with step one: mass graves.

    Sure, killing almost everyone might give some breathing room, but I don't think it's a solution at all, much less a good solution.

    Using renewable liquid fuels where only liquid fuel makes sense, paired with great increases in things like wind, solar, and other "free" renewables, is probably a better goal if you want sustainable energy. Which I, for one, do.

    Also, you've got that sorghum grows on land unsuitable for other farming, which kind of throws your numbers off a bit.

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