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Sweet sorghum for ethanol: A new beginning

OAR@ICRISAT

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/7368/
 
Title Sweet sorghum for ethanol: A new beginning
 
Creator Ashok Kumar, A
Ravinder Reddy, Ch
Patil , J V
Reddy, B V S
 
Subject Sorghum
 
Description Sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] is an important dryland cereal grown
in India (7.8 million ha) and around the world (45.8 million ha) for food, feed,
fodder, bioenergy and fiber. Sweet sorghum is similar to grain sorghum
and are generally tall (3.0-4.0 m), late maturing (20-30 days) and relatively
photoperiod-sensitive; produce 2-3 t ha-1 grain yield with higher stalk yields
(50-60 t ha-1 of fresh biomass).
Sweet sorghum is a new generation bioenergy crop that has potential to
accumulate sugar (10-15%) in its stalk similar to sugarcane, apart from
producing grains. The bagasse, remnant stalk after extraction of juice, can
be used as animal feed or for vermicomposting to generate power. The crop
has the ability to adapt to various agro-climatic conditions and reasonably
tolerates drought and saline-alkaline conditions. The crop is raised from seed
and is of shorter duration (115-120 days) than sugarcane (12-18 months)
making it amenable for multiple cropping systems. Water use or seasonal
evapotranspiration (ET) for sorghum is 508 mm while it is 1257 mm for
sugarcane. Water requirement of this crop is one-third that of sugarcane on a
comparable time scale. Also, sweet sorghum requires about 22% less water
than maize. With these advantages, sweet sorghum is a good bioenergy crop
and can complement the available feedstocks for biofuel production.
 
Publisher International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
 
Date 2013
 
Type Book Section
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights —
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/7368/1/ChapI_SweetSorghum_1-22_2013.pdf
Ashok Kumar, A and Ravinder Reddy, Ch and Patil , J V and Reddy, B V S (2013) Sweet sorghum for ethanol: A new beginning. In: Developing a Sweet Sorghum Ethanol Value Chain. International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh, India, pp. 1-22. ISBN 978-92-9066-555-7