The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is one of 15 institutions partnering with the University of Illinois in the $104 million Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation to turn sorghum into jet fuel.
The University of Nebraska-Lincolns part of the project is to spend the next five years working to expand the oil-producing capabilities of the sorghum plant. Biochemistry professor Edgar Cahoon and agronomy and horticulture professor Tom Clemente will lead the universitys part in the project
The goal for the university is to genetically enhance certain sorghum species so that the stems and leaves contain more oil and less starch. This sturdy and drought-tolerant crop can be grown on more marginal lands than other farm crops, keeping from displacing land now used to grow corn, soybeans and cotton.
The University of Illinois will be focusing on the development of high-tech feedstocks that can synthesize the molecules for bioproducts and biofuels directly in plant stems; new biologically based conversion systems to efficiently produce biodiesel, organic acids, jet fuels and other high value molecules; and a sustainability framework to measure the projects bottom line in terms of economic and the environment.
As part of the feedstocks prerogative, Nebraskas research will focus on sweet sorghum and biomass sorghum, tall plants whose leaves and stems now are used to make ethanol.
Nebraskas research is among nation wide projects who are investigating whether sorghum chemistry and lignin content could produce high-value molecules that could replace petroleum in lubricants and plastics – even jet fuel.
