Khon Kaen Universities pioneers sorghum ethanol

Khon Kaen University plans to develop sweet sorghum as a new material for ethanol if it can get government financial support, says Krairit Nilkuha, the director-general of the Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency.

"We are considering providing project finance of about 100 million baht accordingly to the researchers' requirements to bring this pilot project to a commercial scale," said Mr Krairit. The money would come from the Energy Conservation Fund.

Sweet sorghum is usually planted in small household plots for feeding parrots, and is not generally cultivated commercially, said Mr Krairit. "But since the crop seems to have more economic value, our task initially is to promote a commercial-sized plantation. We need huge output if we want to feed [the ethanol] production plants," said Mr Krairit.

More raw materials for ethanol increases Thailand's security in terms of supply and costs, said Mr Krairit.

Thailand's current ethanol production depends on cassava and sugarcane, both of which are winter crops.

"Sweet sorghum would be the new option for the ethanol producer. Since farm products are seasonal, which we cannot control, we need different crops in different seasons to ensure we have raw materials all through the year," said Mr Krairit. Feedstock prices would also be less volatile, he added.

Sweet sorghum supplies would be ready in the rainy season, said Mr Krairit.

Khon Kaen University began research and development into sweet sorghum at its fields and laboratories several years ago after it found the crop's high sugar content could suit production of ethanol as well as sugar.

Assoc Prof Prasit Jaisil, a researcher from KKU's department of plantation and agricultural research, said his department found that one tonne of sorghum cane can produce almost 70 litres of ethanol, just slightly less than the production from one tonne of sugarcane and of a similar quality.

Sorghum cane has commercial cane sugar (CCS) at 10 ccs, slightly lower than 12-13 ccs for sugarcane, according to research.

KKU's target in the new two years is to double the yield of sweet sorghum to 10 tonnes a rai from only 5 tonnes now.

The university's sorghum lab was originally a collaboration between KKU and SET-Listed Khon Kaen Sugar Industries Plc, Thailand's fourth-largest sugar producer, to seek new materials to replace sugarcane, he said.

But the emergence of energy crops has changed the research's objective to developing alternative fuels.

"We are asking for a total of 100 million baht in government support to buy equipment and facilities for developing the pilot plant, which will produce on a commercial scale of 1,000 litres of ethanol per day. The plant should be ready to start operations in the next two or three years," said the researcher.

"We also plan to develop further products from sweet sorghum. We think it could be a material for bioplastic as well as chemical substances for food ingredients."

India and China are also looking at developing sweet sorghum as a raw material to secure ethanol raw materials, he said.

Sugarcane is currently cheaper than sweet sorghum as a source for ethanol in Thailand but sorghum could be competitive when cane and cassava are out of season, he said.

KKU and its facilities and human resources are ready to set up Thailand's first commercial ethanol plant from sweet sorghum, he said. Once the project is completed, the university plans to set up sorghum plantations in the Northeast of Thailand, where the university is located.

"We believe sweet sorghum will not disappoint us as jatropha did, since it already had far higher plantation costs than palm," said the researcher.

Thailand estimates that demand for ethanol will rise to 3 million litres per day in 2011, up from 1.3 million litres now.

source: bangkokpost