SORGHUM SET FOR AUSTRALIAN BIOFUEL BOOM
SORGHUM has long been produced primarily for feed in Australia, but that could be about to change.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
or signup to continue reading
Peats Soils managing director Peter Wadewitz said Sorghum, which usurped wheat as Qld's most valuable cereal crop last year, has been approved for use as the next generation of biofuels.
Different varieties of sorghum boast different potentials, according to Mr Wadewitz.
"It can produce twice as much sugar as sugarcane,” he said. “They've also got a variety that will pull five tonnes of salt out of the soil and one that will pull cadmium out of soil.”
The opportunity in Australia lies in the growing of sorghum for sugar, for ethanol. A $580 million ethanol plant is to be built in Charters Towers, Qld.
Mr Wadewitz said the plant had confirmed orders for 400t a year of sorghum seed for the first five years, 1000t/yr for the second five years, and 1500t/yr for the third five years.
"On the basis of this product they'll use half as much land as what they were planning to do with sugarcane or corn," he said.
"On that basis they'll use half as much water as what they'd planned as well."
Mr Wadewitz said another advantage sorghum was its structure, after being used and crushed, allows it to be baled and used as a fodder source.
Mr Wadewitz said a trial in Okinawa reaped 400t a hectare of biomass for fodder, for cattle, though 150-200t/ha was a more realistic target.
