Modified sugarcane provides hope for future biofuel production
19 Apr 2017 by Evoluted New Media
Scientists have genetically engineered sugarcane to produce oil in leaves and stems to increase potential yield.
Scientists have genetically engineered sugarcane to produce oil in leaves and stems in order to increase potential biofuel yield.
The modified sugarcane also produces more sugar, providing raw materials for ethanol production. These dual purpose crops are estimated to have double the profitability of corn per acre and more than five times that of soybeans.Professor Stephen Long, from the University of Illinois, said: “Instead of fields of oil pumps, we envision fields of green plants sustainably producing biofuel in perpetuity on our nation's soil, particularly marginal soil that is not well suited to food production.”
With the aid of a juicer, researchers extracted about 90% of the sugar and 60% of the oil from the plant, with the extracted sugars fermented to produce ethanol. It was then treated with organic solvents to recover the oil, a method now patented by the researchers.
Professor Long is leading the Plants Engineered to Replace Oil in Sugarcane and Sweet Sorghum (PETROSS) research project, based at the University. He said: “As it can take 10-15 years for this technology to reach farmers' fields, we need to develop these solutions to ensure our fuel security today and as long as we need liquid fuels into the future."
The team was able to recover more oil from two of the altered sugarcanes lines, resulting in a much higher oil increase percentage compared with unmodified sugarcane. Defying expectations of oil production limiting sugar production, the team were surprised to see the plants’ increased oil production didn’t negatively affect sugar production.
PETROSS has engineered sugarcane capable of producing 13% oil, 8% of which can be converted into biodiesel. Estimates suggest plants with 5% oil would produce more than 550 litres of extra biofuel than soybean per acre and almost three times that amount extra per acre of corn. The scientists are currently looking for investment and their paper has been published in Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology.
