Sugarcane lab slated to receive $3M in federal funds

The U.S. Sugarcane Field Laboratory in Houma could receive more than $3 million in federal funding if the House of Representatives approves a spending bill already passed by the Senate on Dec. 18.

The money would provide $2 million to construct new greenhouses and headhouses at the laboratory’s field research facility on Bull Run Road and $1 million for sugarcane-derived ethanol research.

Headhouses are the buildings where plants are potted and other plant-preparation activities are conducted.

The laboratory is trying to move all its operations from the facility across from the main branch of the Terrebonne Parish Library in Houma to the location on Bull Run Road.

The Houma site was established in the 1920s.

Building a new facility on Bull Run Road would cost around $30 million, said research leader Ed Richard.

The laboratory has accumulated $5 million toward new construction.

“We have a long way to go with $2 million increments to move to the Bull Run facility,” he said.

A new greenhouse costs around $1 million to construct. The Houma facility has 10 greenhouses.

At the Bull Run Road site, the laboratory also wants to build new crossing houses, buildings where plant hybrids are created.

The laboratory can perform 20 crosses at a time at the Houma facility. A new building would accommodate 100 crosses simultaneously.

The $1 million in research money would fund what Richard called “energy cane research.”

“Making ethanol from sugar is easier than from corn,” he said.

The laboratory also would use the money to carry out research into cultivating cold-tolerant varieties of sugarcane and converting bagasse into ethanol. Bagasse is what remains of sugarcane after the juice has been extracted.

The cold-tolerant strains would be grown in the northern sections of Louisiana, Texas and Florida.

Sugarcane is grown only in the southern parts of those states, currently.

Richard said the cold-tolerant cane would be cultivated strictly for conversion into ethanol.