Sugar cane waste use debated

Nicholls State University will lead a consortium of Louisiana universities awarded a $1.9 million contract from the Department of Energy in developing clean fuel technologies in Louisiana. Research at Nicholls will focus on creating ethanol from sugar cane waste that is normally burned.

“This funding is essential for the development of green renewable energy in southeast Louisiana,” said Dr. Ramaraj Boopathy, a professor of biological sciences at Nicholls will be heading up the research team. “Nicholls is ideally located in terms of conventional fossil energy as well as green energy sources.”

The consortium will include Louisiana State University, the University of Louisiana at Lafeyette, the University of New Orleans, Southern University and Tulane. Each school will receive between $220,000 and $300,000.

“We fought to secure these funds for Louisana’s cutting-edge research universities so that we can ensure that our state, an energy leader for the nation, continues to be a leader by developing the innovative alternative fuels of tomorrow,” said U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA).

Ethanol derived from corn is already commonly used across the country in a mixture with conventional gasoline to reduce dependence on foreign oil and aid clean air initiatives.

According to Douglas Durante, the executive director of the Clean Fuel Development Coalition, federal statute requires a higher-level renewable energy use every year. As a result, demand for ethanol is expected to rise. The Clean Fuel Development Coalition is a Washington-based advocacy group for ethanol and clean fuels.

“At some point, we’ll have to move beyond corn, so there’s great interest in sugar cane,” said Durante. The technology to make sugar cane waste into ethanol already exists, but it’s currently more expensive than corn.

“Making sugar into ethanol has been around for hundreds of years. It’s just a question of doing it efficiently and economically,” said Durante.

Corn-based ethanol, although cheap, has some complications. “With corn ethanol, they are taking the land away from food crop, and corn is competing between fuel and food,” said Boopathy. “We grow sugar cane, and the sugar goes to food. Right now, the residue is a waste product that occurs in the farming process.”

Ethanol from sugar cane would come not from the crop, but from the excess foliage in sugar cane. Millions of tons of sugar cane waste is produced every year, and is currently burned off.

As a result, sugar cane ethanol could be more efficient. Rather than using corn normally used to feed animals, producers could buy waste from sugar cane farmers and convert the waste into fuel. This would be better for the environment, as hydrocarbons are already released into the atmosphere when the sugar cane waste is burned, said Boopathy.

According to Rep. Charles Melancon (D-Napoleonville) of Louisiana’s 3rd District, “Discovering new uses for sugar cane biomass may open up a profitable new market for our farmers and expand the field of renewable energy production in Louisiana.”

The trick to bringing sugar cane waste into the ethanol mix is to find a way to make the process more cost effective, he reasons. There are already plants in Brazil that make sugar-based ethanol, but no such plants exist in the United States.

“Sugar cane leaves are basically made up of glucose, sugar molecules. If you can break the leaf and release the sugar fermentation process you can make ethanol,” said Boopathy. “Our goal at Nicholls is to commercialize the process of making sugarcane into ethanol and to make it as cheap as corn.”

Although sugar has some natural advantages over corn, the biggest problem is that corn is cheap. To make corn into ethanol, first starches have to be released from the plant and that has to be converted into sugar before ethanol can be made.

“If you go right to sugar, you go right to first base, but corn is extremely efficient and the yield is high and the economics are good for it,” said Durante.

Demand for ethanol is slated to increase in the coming years, so the market for sugar-based ethanol is already waiting.

“There’s always going to be a market for this stuff. If these guys can do it efficiently and do sugar efficiently, that’s great. There’s a role for that,” he explained. “There’s always work for somebody who can show up with that kind of technology.”

Dr. Ramaraj Boopathy, a professor of biological sciences at Nicholls State University, recently helped the state pull in a $1.9 million grant to research alternative fuels at Louisiana universities. * Photo courtesy of NICHOLLS STATE