Bioethanol production tech ready for commercialization

BATAC, Ilocos Norte — A technology that produces ethanol out of sweet sorghum is now ready for commercialization.

This was reported by Dr. Heraldo L. Layaoen, vice president of the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) and overall coordinator of the DA-BAR Sweet Sorghum Project.

MMSU, headed by Dr. Miriam Pascua as president, is a multicampus university in Ilocos Norte whose seat of administration is the main campus in Batac. DA-BAR stands for Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Agricultural Research.

Dr. Layaoen reported the headways achieved by the DA-BAR-funded project in a paper titled “Sweet Sorghum for Bioethanol.” He presented the report at the Agriculture and Fishery Technology forum held recently at the DA-BAR main building in Diliman, Quezon City. The BAR-organized forum was one of the government activities during the observance of this year’s Farmer and Fisherfolk Month (May).

Ethanol is a clean-burning, high octane alcohol produced from crops such as sugarcane, corn and sorghum. A percentage of ethanol is combined with unleaded gasoline for fuel.

Bioethanol, on the other hand, is a blending of ethanol and gasoline to produce an alternative fuel called gasohol.

Dr. Layaoen said the use of sweet sorghum as feedstock for the production of bioethanol was a brainchild of Dr. William D. Dar, former Agriculture Secretary and now director general of the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

In early February last year, recalled BAR’s senior consultant Dr. Santiago R. Obien (a former MMSU president), Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam, accompanied by Dr. Dar, presented to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at Malacañang foundation seeds of sweet sorghum developed by ICRISAT.

With funding from DA-BAR headed by Director Nicomedes P. Eleazar and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) under the project ‘Commercial Production and Utilization of Sweet Sorghum in North Luzon” and with the full support of Agriculture Secretary Arthur  C. Yap, MMSU began field-testing the ICRISAT varieties.

Results of the MMSU research works undertaken here over the past year have been encouraging, Dr. Layaoen told The STAR.

The crop has multiple uses — food, feed, fuel (ethanol) and forage.

From the crop’s stalk can be squeezed sugar-rich juice suited for ethanol production. Sweet sorghum has a high sugar content — 15 to 23 percent as against sugarcane’s 10 to 20 percent.

Further, the biomass after the extraction of juice is rich in micronurients and minerals that can be used as forage for animal.

Its grains can be ground into flour for the making of snack items such as cookies. Its leaves are good feeds for ruminants (goats, cattle).

Even its roots are good fuelwood.