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The sugarcane industry’s waste product, bagasse, can be used to produce ethanol. However, the conversion process of bagasse to produce ethanol currently requires the use of enzymes which are so expensive that the ethanol then becomes non-viable for commercial use.
The team at QUT, headed up by Professor James Dale, is hoping its project might have the answer.
“The idea is to use the bagasse or the residue from the sugar processing to make ethanol,” says Professor Dale.
“To do that we need to be able to convert the cellulose and hemi-cellulose in the residue into fermentable sugars, and then obviously ferment that into ethanol. What we’re doing is we’re genetically modifying the cane to be able to do the conversion from cellulose to fermentable sugars itself.”
Creating this new strain of self-processing sugarcane would therefore eliminate the need for expensive enzymes in the conversion from bagasse to ethanol, therefore making the fuel commercially viable. It would also transform what was formerly a waste product into another revenue stream for farmers.
“At the present time cellulosic ethanol is really the Holy Grail of bio-ethanol because it doesn’t depend on feed or food, it depends on residue,” says Professor Dale. “And I believe very firmly that what’s going to happen in Australian agriculture is that the value of the biomass will become increasingly important and farmers will be in a much, much better position as we go forward.”
However, as Professor Dale admits, it won’t be an overnight fairytale for the sugarcane industry.
“We’re looking at a timescale to go through the research and particularly the development phase of around about three to four years,” Professor Dale says. “And then we go into the field and that may be two to three years, and then look for commercial release.
“So we’re predicting it’s going to be seven years before this sugar cane is going to be rolled out to farmers in Australia and elsewhere in the world. And then it’s a matter of time as to the take up of those farmers to grow this type of sugarcane.”
The importance of the project has been recognized globally, and has received significant backing from the world’s biggest agribusiness firm Syngenta, and from Australian biotechnology company Farmacule. The combination of the intellectual property of these three parties makes the project globally significant.
Professor Dale says: “Bringing those (IP holders) together makes this a really powerful project and really probably the most advanced project in this space in the world at the moment.”
And if the project succeeds, then within a decade sugarcane could be contributing significantly to the world’s fuel needs.
“The amount of ethanol that can be produced is actually quite a difficult question for us to answer at the present time, because it very much depends on how efficient we can make the process,” says Professor Dale.
“However, that having been said we believe we will be able to produce enough bio-ethanol from bagasse to take Australia to at least E10 – so 10 per cent of all ethanol in Australia could be derived from sugarcane bagasse.”
The team at QUT, headed up by Professor James Dale, is hoping its project might have the answer.
“The idea is to use the bagasse or the residue from the sugar processing to make ethanol,” says Professor Dale.
“To do that we need to be able to convert the cellulose and hemi-cellulose in the residue into fermentable sugars, and then obviously ferment that into ethanol. What we’re doing is we’re genetically modifying the cane to be able to do the conversion from cellulose to fermentable sugars itself.”
Creating this new strain of self-processing sugarcane would therefore eliminate the need for expensive enzymes in the conversion from bagasse to ethanol, therefore making the fuel commercially viable. It would also transform what was formerly a waste product into another revenue stream for farmers.
“At the present time cellulosic ethanol is really the Holy Grail of bio-ethanol because it doesn’t depend on feed or food, it depends on residue,” says Professor Dale. “And I believe very firmly that what’s going to happen in Australian agriculture is that the value of the biomass will become increasingly important and farmers will be in a much, much better position as we go forward.”
However, as Professor Dale admits, it won’t be an overnight fairytale for the sugarcane industry.
“We’re looking at a timescale to go through the research and particularly the development phase of around about three to four years,” Professor Dale says. “And then we go into the field and that may be two to three years, and then look for commercial release.
“So we’re predicting it’s going to be seven years before this sugar cane is going to be rolled out to farmers in Australia and elsewhere in the world. And then it’s a matter of time as to the take up of those farmers to grow this type of sugarcane.”
The importance of the project has been recognized globally, and has received significant backing from the world’s biggest agribusiness firm Syngenta, and from Australian biotechnology company Farmacule. The combination of the intellectual property of these three parties makes the project globally significant.
Professor Dale says: “Bringing those (IP holders) together makes this a really powerful project and really probably the most advanced project in this space in the world at the moment.”
And if the project succeeds, then within a decade sugarcane could be contributing significantly to the world’s fuel needs.
“The amount of ethanol that can be produced is actually quite a difficult question for us to answer at the present time, because it very much depends on how efficient we can make the process,” says Professor Dale.
“However, that having been said we believe we will be able to produce enough bio-ethanol from bagasse to take Australia to at least E10 – so 10 per cent of all ethanol in Australia could be derived from sugarcane bagasse.”
