Japanese scientists develop high-yield sugar cane variety for biofuels
The new variety, dubbed 'Monster Cane' for its size as much as its vigor, is grown on a test field on the tiny island of Ie in Japan's southernmost prefecture of Okinawa. The researchers used inter-specific conventional crossing to develop the new high biomass variety and combined it with crossing varieties that are well adapted to adverse conditions (drought, salinity). Dr. Akira Sugimoto who headed the research, says the hybrid was made from the inter-specific crosses between Saccharum officinarum and S. spontaneum.
'Monster cane' compared to standard varieties grown in Japan:
- estimated dry matter yield: 37.4 tonnes per hectare - processed into: 7.1 tons of sugar, 4300 liters of ethanol and 24 tons of bagasse
- conventional cane: 17.4 tons per hectare - processed into: 6.9 tons of sugar, 1400 liters of ethanol production, 7.8 tons of bagasse
- new cane yields three times as much bagasse, or crushed sugarcane refuse, which is burned to generate the energy to run a sugar-ethanol plant; large amount of excess electricity to be fed into the grid
- excess biomass (leaves, non-crushed stalks) to be mixed with manure used as organic fertilizer
Formally known as 'high-biomass sugarcane', Monster Cane is Japan's first variety designed to produce ethanol without sacrificing sugar output. In a few months, the cane grown on Ie will be harvested to feed a pilot plant run by Asahi Breweries, which aims to test its technology for producing ethanol from cane at a cost of just 30 yen (20€urocent/US$25cents) per liter, making it very competitive with gasoline:
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The researchers hope the new variety will breathe life into Japanese farming of sugarcane, an important part in crop rotation in Okinawa, by adding value to sugar production. "We believe biomass energy will be widely used in Japan in the future, and as a maker of alcohol, we want to contribute to society using our technology," said Satoshi Ohara, researcher at Asahi's Engineering & Technology Development Laboratory.
Fuel-use ethanol is currently not produced commercially in Japan as the country lacks the necessary excess farm produce and the costs involved are usually too high. But Tokyo, which has signed the Kyoto Protocol to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, is getting serious about promoting ethanol.
Some critics say that ethanol is no solution to global warming if massive inputs of fossil fuels are required to grow the crops and power the facilities used to produce ethanol. This is true for ethanol based on low yielding crops such as corn, but not in the case of sugar cane. In Brazil, bagasse is used to power the production process. Likewise, Asahi's ethanol production process itself is carbon-neutral because it uses the large amount of biomass from the cane sugarcane to power the conversion process.
An increasing number of Japanese farmers have been abandoning sugarcane production amid intensifying competition from cheap imported sugar and shrinking domestic sugar consumption. Sugarcane output on Ie Island plunged to a record-low 1,500 tons last year from 52,000 tons in the peak year of 1979. The island's only sugar mill closed in 2004. "If an ethanol plant is set up for commercial operations in Okinawa, sugarcane production may recover," said Hirokazu Nagayama, director at a farmers cooperative on the island.
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