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Assessing Viability of Bio-ethanol Production from Sweet Sorghum. Working Paper Series no. 30

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Title Assessing Viability of Bio-ethanol Production from Sweet Sorghum. Working Paper Series no. 30
 
Creator Basavaraj, G
Rao, P P
Basu, K
Ravinder Reddy, Ch
Ashok Kumar, A
Srinivasa Rao, P
Reddy, B V S
 
Subject Sorghum
Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics
 
Description To meet the energy requirement for transport, blending of ethanol with automotive fuels
has been mandated in India as in several other countries across the globe. Currently, the
entire blending requirement has to come from molasses (by-product of sugarcane). Ethanol
produced from molasses will not be able to meet the blending targets due to cyclical nature
of sugarcane production resulting in shortage of molasses and competing uses (potable and
pharmaceutical use) of ethanol produced from molasses. This has promoted research efforts
to augment energy sources that are sustainable and economically viable. One such source
that can be commercially exploited for ethanol production is sweet sorghum. The sugars in
the stalks of sweet sorghum can be crushed to produce juice, which can be processed into
ethanol for blending. Since ethanol production is from the stalks, the harvested grain from
sweet sorghum adds to food basket and the diversion land for ethanol production will not
comprise on food production. An attempt is made in the paper to assess viability of ethanol
production from sweet sorghum. Net Present Value (NPV) the indicator of economic viability
is negative and would thus be difficult for the industry to take off under the current scenario
of administered price of ethanol, feedstock price and recovery rate. To meet the future
blending requirements ethanol production has to be augmented from alternate sources like
sweet sorghum through appropriate policy support and improvement in technical efficiency
parameters.
 
Publisher International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
 
Date 2012
 
Type Monograph
NonPeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights —
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/6068/1/MIP_WPS_30_2012.pdf
Basavaraj, G and Rao, P P and Basu, K and Ravinder Reddy, Ch and Ashok Kumar, A and Srinivasa Rao, P and Reddy, B V S (2012) Assessing Viability of Bio-ethanol Production from Sweet Sorghum. Working Paper Series no. 30. Working Paper. International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India:.