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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.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Friday December 15 2017, @08:42PM
Math and logic, learn it. The U.S. is a huge exporter of food at the moment. If we suddenly divert a large portion of our arable land to grow fuel, how much food goes off the market? How many people die? The U.S. is not likely to reduce fuel consumption all that much, as new tech comes energy use tends to go UP, not down. It doesn't matter how little gas some noble savage in Africa is using, they can't feed themselves; yet if they develop enough to feed themselves they probably are also trying to attain our lifestyle and will also begin diverting land to grow fuel. And arable land is now a fairly fixed quantity, better infrastructure and irrigation can bring some new 3rd world land into production but not nearly enough to feed everyone AND provide the fuel required for a civilization.
Growing fuel means a much lower population, no escaping that. So you who support biofuel need to either own it or rethink. Do you support culling off 25-50% of the current human population or don't you?