Bioethanol production potential of sweet and forage sorghum varieties

Abstract

We present results of a study conducted in 2005 and 2006 with sweet sorghum crop in Alentejo. In the first year, main objective was to compare, quantitative and qualitatively, different sweet sorghum varieties. Thus, the following varieties (genotypes) were evaluated: Brandes, Dale, Madhura, Ramada, Rio, Theis, Wiley and Wray. In 2006, additionally to sweet varieties Brandes, Madhura and Theis (the ones that produced mature grain) two forage varieties (Nicol and Rocket) were also studied. The sweet variety Theis seems to be advantageous since it produced seed in the first year, what will allow an easier propagation in this region, and tended to be the most productive of the three varieties tested in both years achieving 93.5 t ha^-1 of fresh stems, 6.3 t ha^-1 of sugars and 3149 L ha^-1 of estimated ethanol yield. The forage sorghum varieties, as expected, showed to be less interesting for bioethanol production .