Seeds for energy
Sep 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Lynn Grooms
The Noble Foundation in Ardmore, OK, will manage some production-scale demonstration fields of energy crops near Guymon and Maysville, OK, this year. This is in conjunction with an Oklahoma Bioenergy Center program that involves planting more than 1,000 acres to dedicated energy crops.
Abengoa Bioenergy is building a cellulosic ethanol plant in Hugoton, KS, less than 35 miles from Guymon, which will be able to use the program's feedstocks. It is expected to be operational in 2010.
Ceres will provide seed and agronomic expertise for the establishment and management of the demonstration fields. The Idaho National Laboratory, the lead feedstock supply and logistics lab for the U.S. Department of Energy, will provide expertise in harvest, collection and processing of biomass along with Abengoa.
Over the next several months, Ceres will hold grower meetings, focused primarily in areas near small-scale cellulosic biorefineries, including some of the six biorefineries that have been designated to receive Department of Energy funding. They are in Kansas, Florida, California, Iowa and Georgia.
For 2009, Ceres also will offer four high biomass sorghum varieties. ES 5150 and ES 5140 are Sorghum x Sudan grass hybrids, and 5141 BMR and 5142 BMR are brown midrib varieties with low lignin content.
The Sorghum x Sudan grass hybrids yield between 12 and 15 dry tons/acre and the BMR hybrids yield a bit less than that, Rath says. All have been selected for improved yields and high conversion into ethanol.
Still in the Ceres research pipeline are sweet sorghum hybrids, giant miscanthus and short-rotation woody biomass crops. When they are fully developed, the sweet sorghum hybrids will be marketed in sugarcane areas for conversion into ethanol. Ceres is collaborating with Texas A&M on sweet sorghum research.
Ceres's research work on giant miscanthus is still in the early research stages. Because this cane-like grass is vegetatively propagated, the company is working on more cost-effective propagation techniques, Rath says.
Mendel partners with Monsanto
Like Ceres, Mendel Biotechnology, Hayward, CA, is a “product of the genomic era of the late 1990s,” says Mendel CEO and President Neal Gutterson. His company focuses on the application of functional genomics to develop dedicated energy crops as well as agronomic crops with beneficial traits. It has relationships with other companies, including Monsanto Company, for the commercialization of improved seed products.
In April, Mendel announced it will work with Monsanto to enhance the development of its dedicated energy seeds. Monsanto will lend crop testing, breeding and seed production expertise.
Field testing will help identify the best varieties for eventual commercialization, says Mike Edgerton, ethanol and quality traits technical lead, Monsanto.
Over the past few years, Mendel collaborated with a group in China on miscanthus collection. In addition to the plant material from China, Mendel acquired a miscanthus breeding program from Germany. The company now has about 2,000 accessions in its collection. It is studying these cultivars for use as bioenergy feedstocks and is working with Monsanto and other collaborators on the first U.S. field trials of seed-propagated miscanthus varieties in several Southeastern and Midwestern states. The research is focused on identifying first-generation seed-propagated varieties and best breeding parents for future varieties.
Many good public varieties will be used initially and will require government subsidies to be cost competitive on a large scale, Gutterson says. Mendel is developing high-performing feedstocks that will not require subsidies to be competitive, he adds. The company's goal is to be a stand-alone seed producer, distributor and marketer. It also is working on forage sorghum as a cellulosic ethanol feedstock.
Last year, Mendel entered into an agreement with BP, the British oil and natural gas company, to develop a seed business based on these energy crops. A shareholder, BP is funding a five-year biofuels research program at Mendel.
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