Green fuel from cane could be economic boon

Using Louisiana sugar mills to produce biofuels and value-added chemicals in addition to sugar can help the state’s sugar industry become a driving force for economic growth in Louisiana and produce alternative fuels to satisfy the state’s demand, LSU AgCenter researchers told the U.S. secretary of energy Monday.

Samuel Bodman, secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, was on the LSU AgCenter campus to hear about results from research funded by grants from his department.

Since 2004, the LSU AgCenter has been developing fuels from sugarcane through a cooperative venture with MBI International, a nonprofit spin-off of Michigan State University.

Researchers hope to increase the value of bagasse and other vegetative residues by converting them to sugars, which can be fermented into ethanol.

The LSU AgCenter has participated in a Department of Energy grant of $4 million since 2004, and an additional $1 million grant will start in July, said Dr. Donal Day, a researcher at the LSU AgCenter’s Audubon Sugar Institute.

The LSU AgCenter, particularly through its Audubon Sugar Institute, has been a leader in developing the “biorefinery concept,” which envisions sugarcane mills as sites that produce fuel, value-added chemicals and steam and electric power, said Dr. David Boethel, vice chancellor for research in the AgCenter.

“We think Louisiana is a unique place to grow plants for biofuel because of our long growing season and land currently not in cultivation,” Boethel said. “In addition, we have the infrastructure in the state to handle large quantities of biomass.”

Day said the Audubon Sugar Institute’s approach is to develop new technologies that can be integrated into existing sugar mills and take advantage of capital investments, which sit idle most of the year because the sugar-processing season is only about three months long.

Day said the AgCenter is evaluating a range of crops to harvest at different times of the year to allow mills to operate year-round. He said that in addition to sugarcane, mills could process sweet sorghum, “energy cane” and miscanthus, a grass with properties to produce ethanol.

“We could extend mill operations from three months to 12 months a year by using a range of feedstocks that can be processed in a sugar mill,” he said.

Bodman said he was pleased with what he heard from the LSU AgCenter and called Day’s presentation “very impressive.”

“Our goal is to try to run the programs of the Department of Energy in a fashion that’s merit-based,” Bodman said. He said he is interested in learning about “areas and approaches that we should be looking at.”

Dr. Valerie Reed with the Office of the Biomass Program in the Department of Energy said the department funds national laboratories, universities and industry, and ethanol has been the main focus for alternative fuels.

“Near term, it’s the fuel of choice on limited budgets,” Reed said. But the department is interested in cellulosic biomass and looking beyond ethanol at what she called “advanced biofuels.”

“We want to see fuels ready in a five- to 10-year timeframe,” she said.

She also said higher-value byproducts are essential in fuel production because they contribute to the cost of running the process.