Biofuels Digest’s 2012 New Feedstock (Trial) Award: Ceres, sweet sorghum

December 31, 2012 | Jim Lane

Last month, Ceres announced that it has signed a sweet sorghum market development agreement with Syngenta. The companies will work together to support the introduction of sweet sorghum as a source of fermentable sugars at Brazil’s 400 or more ethanol mills.

Last season, Brazilian mills planted Ceres sweet sorghum on more than 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres). The trials demonstrated large increases in biomass, extractable juice volume and total harvestable sugar compared to commercial products introduced just last year. In product development trials and at the company’s breeding center, where field evaluation plots are irrigated and managed more closely than commercial fields, these hybrids averaged 80 or more metric tons per hectare. Subsequent field evaluations in the Southeast U.S. this summer have confirmed similar results.

READ MORE: All about the project, here.