Sweet and high biomass sorghums as potential biofuel feedstocks

All India Coordinated Research Project on Sorghum

ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, MoA&FW

Hyderabad, Telangana

A V UmakanthPrincipal Scientist and PI (Sweet and High Biomass Sorghum)

Outline

1. Background

2. Status of sorghum

R&D for 1st and 2nd

generation biofuels

3. Way Forward

Ethanol Demand Supply Status-India

S.No Parameter Unit Value

1. Average Sugar Cane Production in India Million Tonnes 370

2. Average Sugar Cane Crushing in India Million Tonnes 270

3. Molasses generated as a byproduct @4.5% of

Cane crushed

Million Tonnes 12.2

4. Alcohol / Ethanol production @ 237.5 litre per

ton of molasses

Million Litres 3000

5. Estimated Usage of this Alcohol/ethanol in

India

A. Potable Sector Million Litres 1000-

1200

B. Chemical Sector Million Litres 600-800

C. EBP Programme Million Litres 1000-

1400

• 10% blending of ethanol in petrol by 2022 (>3100 mn L)

• Govt proposes to cut crude oil imports by 10% by 2022

• 20% blending of ethanol in petrol by 2030

• Demand gap of >1600 million litres

EBP Programme – Progress so far

Sugar year

Blending percentage $

2012-13 0.67

2013-14 1.53

2014-15 2.33

2015-16 3.51

2016-17 2.07

2017-18 3.80

$ Ethanol supply year – Dec-Nov

Developments in EBP Programme-2018

• Notified National Policy on Biofuels-2018

• Ethanol production from B heavy

molasses, sugarcane juice, sweet

sorghum, damaged food grains is allowed.

• Provision for allowing surplus food grains

for ethanol production.

• Enhanced price for ethanol derived from

C heavy molasses route.

• Higher price for ethanol derived from B

heavy molasses/Sugarcane juice.

• GST reduced from 18% to 5% on ethanol

for EBP Programme.

Sorghum-A diverse crop

6

Bred for

human and

animal feed

Bred for

biofuels,

biopower,

biobased

products

Grain sorghum Forage sorghum

Energy sorghum Sweet sorghum

Nutrition & Palatability

Biomass Yield Juice & Sugars

Grain Yield

Why Sorghum for biofuels?

• For the grower…– Versatile crop

– High-yielding

– 2-3 crops per year

– Established agronomic systems

• For the processing industry….– Fast scale-up

– No CAPEX

– Drop-in for multiple existing supply chains

• For the seed industry…– Huge genetic diversity

– Hybrid Technology in place

– Rapid breeding for scale up

– Seed propagated

7

Comparison of different feedstocksCrop Crop

duration

(months)

Percentage

of sugar

(on weight

basis)

Sugar

yield

(tons/

acre)

Crop

yield

(tons/

acre)

Harvesting Potential

ethanol

yield

(L/ha)

Maize 3-4 months

(two

harvests per

year)

- - 2.5

(grain

)

Harvested

mechanical

ly

1500-3800

Sugar

cane

12 months

(one harvest

per year)

8-12% 2.5-4.8 25-30 Difficult

and

laborious

5000-9950

Sweet

sorghum

4 months

(two

harvests per

year)

8-10% 2-3 20-25 Very

simple;

both

manual

and

through

mechanical

machines

5414-

13032

cassava 9-12 months

(one harvest

per year)

- - 10-30 Manual 4500

Sugar

beet

10 months

(one harvest

per year)

15-18% 4.5-7.2 13-25 Very

simple;

normally

manual

7100-

10500

Value added products from sorghum

High Biomass Sorghum

Biomass

Cellulosic Biofuels andBiopower

Swe

et

sorg

hu

m

Bio

mas

s so

rgh

um

Ethanol production process

Sweet sorghum productivity traits

S No

Trait Range

1 Fresh stalk yields 40-50 t/ha (rainy & summer)

2 Juice brix 16-19% (rainy and summer)

3 Reducing sugars (RS)

2-4%

4 Sucrose (%) 8-11%

5 Juice extraction 40-45%; 60-90% in big mills

6 Juice yield/ha 16-18 KL

7 Bagasse (residue) Yield

5-7 t /ha (dry wt basis)

8 Ethanol recovery 6-9 % of juice

9 Ethanol Yield 1400-2000 Lit/ha/season

10 Power from residue (bagasse)

2.5-3.0 MW /ha of crop

Bagasse can also be used for 2G biofuel production

Ethanol yields from sweet sorghum

S

No

State Sugar Mill

1 Andhra

Pradesh

Eid Parry India Pvt Ltd, Sagar Sugars,

Nav Bharat Ventures

2 Telangana Madhucon Sugars, Rusni Distilleries

3 Karnataka Renuka Sugars, Core Green Sugars

4 Maharashtra Tata Chemicals Limited, Praj

Industries, Somaiya Organo-

Chemicals

5 Gujarat Shree Ganesh Khandsari Sahkari

Udyog Mandali Ltd

6 U.P National Sugar Institute, Kisan Sahkari

Chini Mills

7 Tamil Nadu Salem Cooperative Sugar Mills

Limited, Bannari Amman Sugars

8 Uttrarakhand India Glycols Ltd

Trials with industry

Parameter Sweet

sorghum1

(Rs liter-1)

Sugarcane molasses2

(Rs liter-1)

Human

power

0.50 0.25

Steam 1.00 1.00

Electricity 1.00 1.00

Yeast 0.10 0.10Management/Administration

0.10 0.25

Pollution

control

Nil 0.25

Raw

material

10.41 12.13

Total 13.11 14.98

1Sweet sorghum stalk @ Rs 500 t ha-1; 2Sugarcane molasses@ Rs 2,000 t ha-1.

(Source: Dayakar Rao et al., 2004).

35-50

lit of

ethan

ol/ton

• The ethanol price received was not sufficient

to make the industry viable

• Feedstock supply was not continuous – so

limited period of operations

• Non-compliance for ethanol blending targets -

low market demand

Why sweet sorghum ethanol didn`t take off?

Current efforts on commercialization

Availability of sweet sorghum feedstock duringlean period of sugarcane crushing

•Promoting sweet sorghum as a complimentary feedstock

in existing sugar mills area

Recent Industrial Partners

E.I.D.- Parry (India) Limited, A.P Madhucon sugars, Telangana

Ganesh Sugars, Gujarat Core Green Sugar and Fuels Pvt.

Ltd, Karnataka

Big mill tests – 88% JE and Primary Brix: >17%

Without changing a single nut and bolt in existing Sugarcane machinery, sweet

sorghum could be crushed

Performance of varieties for stalk, Juice and sugar traits-Kh. 2017

S No Entry

Days to

flower

Total

biomass

yield

(t/ha)

Fresh

stalk

yield

(t/ha)

Juice

yield

(L/ha)

Brix

(%)

Juice

extracti

on (%)

1 (SSV F7-2)-6-1-3-1-1-2-1 85 84 54 18534 15.3 38

2 (SSV F7-2)-6-1-3-2-1-2-1 83 76 53 17633 16.4 37

3

(RSCN 2103 X SSV 84)-2-1-3-1-

1-2-1 78 83 51 19518 16.4 43

4

(EC 582508 X RS 647)-3-1-1-2-1-

2-1 81 71 50 19243 15.3 42

5 KNP17-2 76 72 47 13928 16.1 33

6 KNP17-1 76 69 46 15295 15.9 36

7 KNP17-6 76 77 46 14093 15.6 34

8 KNP17-7 75 69 45 14329 17.3 36

9

(SSV84 Tall X RSSV 351)-3-1-1-

2-1-1 73 60 45 15300 16.0 38

10 KNP17-4 74 68 44 14196 15.4 36

11 (27 B X SSV 84)-4-1-2-1-1-1 76 77 44 12838 16.2 32

12 (N 596 X SPV 1871)-6-1-1-1-2 77 60 43 13438 15.2 35

13 CSV 19SS 79 61 40 13006 15.1 36

14 CSV 24SS 83 61 35 10521 15.4 34

Mean 77 67 43 13991 15.6 36

F Prob. 0.00 0.36 0.08 0.07 0.01 0.64

C.D. 5% 2.95 - - - 2.09 -> 25% Sup for FSY; >45% Sup for JY

SSVF7 derivative

Sample Size (10) Biomass (kg) Stalk (kg) Juice (ml) Brix

Ratoon Feb 14th 3.06A 1.50 676 13.21

B

Ratoon Feb 23rd 2.46B 1.26 533 12.29

B

Ratoon Mar 22nd 2.96AB 1.46 601 16.12

A

p-Value 0.01 0.09 0.17 0.00

CV% 15.14 21.45 33.98 16.10

Sweet sorghum and summer ratoon

Sorghum Ratoonability

19

Main crop (in the back) and first ratoon First ratoon 45 days old

First ratoon 30 days old First ratoon 80 days old

Main crop yield

60 tons/ha

First ratoon yield

62 tons/ha

No added inputs

Or water to ratoon

Souce-ICRISAT

Enzyme activity and Sucrose content at different crop (Rainy) growth stages

BL = Boot leaf stage; MI = Milky stage; PM = Physiological Maturity stage; M = Maturity stage

ESS = Exotic sweet sorghum; ISS= Indian sweet sorghum; GS = Grain sorghum; FS = Forage sorghum

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

BL MI PM M

Un

it

Crop growth stage

Sucrose synthase

ESS

ISS

GS

FS

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

BL MI PM M

Un

it

Crop growth stage

Sucrose phosphate synthase

ESS

ISS

GS

FS

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

BL MI PM M

% S

ucr

ose

Crop growth stage

Percent Sucrose

ESS

ISS

GS

FS

1 Unit = 1µg fructose/min/mg ptn

Brown Midrib sweet sorghum biomass

for ethanol production

21

Rivera et al 2013

78.0

61.4

72.3

63.4 63.668.0

57.3

71.6

SPH 1798 SPV2531 SPV2532 SPV2533 SPV2534 SPV2535 CSH 13 CSH 22 SS

High biomass trial-Kharif 2017

Fresh biomass (t/ha)

Cont`d..

30.3 30.4

33.1

25.6

24.2

26.3

23.9

30.6

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

35.0

SPH 1798 SPV2531 SPV2532 SPV2533 SPV2534 SPV2535 CSH 13 CSH 22 SS

t/h

a

High biomass trial-Kharif 2017

Dry biomass

Total alcohol potential (100g dry basis of biomass) = 288L/ton if C5+C6 fermented together

CU

Distillery

DCU

Way forward• Linkages with All India Distillers` Association for

promoting sweet sorghum for ethanol

• Multi-feedstock Distilleries can enter into contract

farming with farmers/FPOs wherever possible for

ensuring a strong supply chain management system

through Centralized or De-centralized units (Syrup)

• Establishment of crushers

DC Unit at village level for syrup making

Way forward

Way forward

• Sweet sorghum juice can be complemented with

molasses/sugarcane juice for ethanol production.

• Integration of 1G and 2G technologies.

• Win-win situation for both farmers and industry

Source: JNTU, Hyderabad

What will success look like?

• Meeting the blending targets through complementation

of sweet sorghum/sorghum with S`cane molasses for

ethanol production

• Reduction in oil imports through domestic biofuel

production and improvement in trade balance

• Generation of new demand for agricultural products

• More opportunities for value-addition for agricultural

output

• Improvement in rural employment and livelihoods,

poverty reduction and tackling climate change

27

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Contact:

umakanth@millets.res.in

www.millets.res.in

Acknowledgements