Biofuels expert researches ethanol production from sorghum

While it’s not the Emerald City, it certainly is green.

Destiny, Fla., the state’s first fully environmentally conscious city, will harness the power of wind, water and rain to operate.

Located about 50 minutes southeast of Orlando, the development project sprawls over 41,300
acres and already boasts the state’s first energy farm.

Along with myriad public and private companies, UF also has a stake in the success of the
farm.

Zane Helsel, an agronomist and biofuel specialist at Rutgers University, is a UF visiting professor who has been working on the energy farm since April researching an alternative ethanol source.

Helsel, who works out of UF’s Everglades Research and Education Center, is researching a plant noted for its contributions to southern cooking.

From sunup to sundown, Helsel monitors the growth of sweet sorghum, a plant commonly found in states such as Tennessee and Kentucky, where it has been farmed for the production of food commodities such as syrup.

The plant is now being harvested in Florida because it may be the key to producing another source of ethanol, one that may be derived much more easily than ethanol produced from corn.

“Sugar can be squeezed out (of the plant) just like sugarcane,” he said. Agricultural specialists believe the plant will do well in southern Florida because it is able to grow in sandy soils and subsist on less water, he said.

“In this case, because we have less water and nitrogen, we’re being more sustainable,” he
said.

After doing the scientific testing of the soil moisture levels, measuring sugar content, and weighing samples for plant performance data, Helsel gets out of the lab and works alongside local, independent farmers who are growing sweet sorghum as a test crop.

Which fertilizers are used and how crops are irrigated is a huge factor in determining how to get the best harvest of sweet sorghum and, ultimately, how to produce the most ethanol for alternative fuel sources, he said.

After the first few months of testing, Helsel said the plant did both very well and very poorly
in different areas. He attributed these results to the fact that it has been a somewhat dry year, and he said the research will go on as long as there are positive tests.

Helsel will continue his work on the Destiny Sustainable Energy Farm as a visiting professor with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences for a year.

At a glance
· UF is researching alternative fuel sources on Florida's first energy farm.
· UF visiting professor, Zane Helsel, has been testing sweet sorghum for ethanol production.
· Sweet sorghum is a good match for Florida's climate because it grows in sandy soil and requires less water.