Breeding for multiple use: Sweet Sorghum for fuel,

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Breeding for multiple use Sweet Sorghum for
fuel, feed, food and fiber Prof. Li
Dajue Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of
Sciences Beijing Green Energy Institute, China

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1. Background Nowadays, more than 800
million people suffer from hunger and
malnutrition in Africa, Asia, Latin America and
even in Europe and the USA. More than 2
billion people have no access to modern energy
sources Depletion of fossil energy resources
Each year ca. 11 million hectares of forest
disappear
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Now, the security of energy has been faced
with challenge, the pollution is the more the
serious, the food security is not optimism.
Therefore, we should find a crop, which can not
only produce food but also Fuel, feed and fiber.
This Crop is Sweet sorghum (SS). Especially for
China, the arable land only account for 7, while
the population account for 21 of the world.
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SS belong to the C4 plants, which has
high photosynthetic efficiency. It not means all
the cultivar have the high of stalk yield and
high grain yield. So, we have to select and breed
new cultivars. Through select and cross,
some new cultivars were bred and used for the
First International SS Trials in Thailand,
Indonesia, India and China supported by FAO. The
cultivar BJ-248 is a promising cultivar in India
(Dr. T.S. Raveendran, Director, Centre for Plant
Breeding Genetics). In Thailand, the sucrose
content of the BJ-248 reaches to 83.95, it can
be used for making crystal sugar. The ethanol
yield of BJ-238 reached 9170.9 l/ha. Recently,
some new cultivars used in Zambia, they make the
ethanol cost is only 44-80 of that of sugarcane.
 

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• Some new cultivars has been bred
• This is
• TS-1 SS

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This is GE-2 SS
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This is GE-3 SS
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Recent 7 years , I use the retirement to
carrying out the research work, I got a terrible
time, I am a Research Fallow, but also a worker,
a farmer. However, the research work got
important progress. 3. Some Progress on the
research 3.1 A Male Sterile System was
discover



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Some scientists use the A-line of grain
sorghum to make hybrid sorghum. As results, the
plant height and grain yield increased, however,
the stalk had less juice and sugar content in
juice decreased. As the gene with no juice and no
sugar are dominant allele. The sugar content
(Brix) of most F1 are 10-18.
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A plant of mile sterile with high sugar content
in juice was discover by chance in field in 2001



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It was cloned with advanced Bio-technique and the
callus come into being through cell culture



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These are the yang plants of SS through tissue
culture

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The yang Line-A plants were moved from glass
bottle
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3.2 some hybrid combination has been
ensailence When the Line-A GEH-1 was
crossed with SS cultivars the yield of hybrids
increased 40-80 more than that of Keller SS.
The author named them as Super Hybrid SS (SHSS).
They will be used in production near future
(depending on the availability of support) and
will greatly enhance productivity development and
encourage the development of bioenergy production.

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These are the plants of hybrid in field

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This is the upper part of the hybrid plant

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This is the whole plant of the hybrid

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The plants high of SHSS are more than 5 m.


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This is the inflorescence of Line-A



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The experiment field In 2006 in Beijing
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The height of this plant is 576 cm. Of cause
the plant height 450-500 cm is enough, I think.



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A single stalk of SS, one section is 50 cm long



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Some of SHSS is bigger than that of sugarcane
here.

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The stem of hybrid SS

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The diameter of SHSS is 3-5 cm
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All plants were covered with nylon net to prevent
the birds to eat it.



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This is a type of panicle of SHSS

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Another type of panicle
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3.3 A New Cultivar without Bud has been bred
A mile sterile line GEH-1 cross with a
Mutant GEM-1, a cultivar without bud in knot
naissance. This cultivar with high sugar content
in juice (The Brix ranged from 18-26, most them
are 22-23). The plant height 450-520 cm. It is a
promising combination.



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Almost all cultivars I collected possesses the
character of tiller

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The ratoon SS have more tillers



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There is a bud on the knot for most of SS
cultivars
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The main character of GE-10 SS is no bud on the
knot
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This is a plane figure of stalk. You can see
there is not bud on it

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There is an important significant for SS
production. As I know, till now there is not a
non-tiller sugarcane cultivars used in
production, even it was cultivated for several
thousand years. The naissance of non-tiller
cultivar will increase the yield greatly. At
least save 45-60 men power per ha (The cost
decreased US 180-240/ha) . At the same time it
encourage the main stem grow strongly, save the
consumption of nutrition, avoid plants laid flat
by heavy rainstorms and maturity at the same time.



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This is the upper part of GE-10 SS plant
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Another type of panicle
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3.4 Two lines System appears The GEH-1
line sensitive to temperature and photoperiod and
has a instability. Just like Rice, some time it
has pollen some time it is no pollen. Some kind
of GEH-1 sensitive to temperature, some kind of
them sensitive to photoperiod. There is a
possibility to get a lime which can get the seed
under high temperature and long photoperiod and
at the lower temperature and shorter photoperiod
it become a Lime-A. In this case we need no to
use Line-B. it will increase the efficiency and
benefit.



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3.5 To breed a high sugar content is possible
The correlation coefficient analysis showed
that the plant height, stalk weight, panicle
weight and Brix are positive correlation except
it is weakly negative coefficient of -0.029
between Brix and diameter of stalk. It reveals
that to bred new cultivars with high stalk yield,
high grain yield and high sugar content is
possible.



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The correlation coefficient
analysis showed that the plant height, stalk
weight, panicle weight and Brix are positive
correlation except it is weakly negative
coefficient of -0.029 between Brix and diameter
of stalk. It reveals that to bred new cultivars
with high stalk yield, high grain yield and high
sugar content is possible.



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5148 plants of SS were measured, the Brix
is 19.7 on average and ranged from 3 to 26.5.
The correlation coefficient of main agronomy
characters of SS are as following.


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3.6 Breeding resistance to salt-alkali cultivar
SS have the characters to resistance to
salt-alkali. However, the ability are different.
Therefore, we can select and breed some tolerance
cultivars.
2
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This is a series salt-alkali soil in Changzhou,
Hebei Province. In the front There are not any
weed grown.

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However, SS grows Very well here.
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3.7 Breeding some cultivars with high
stalk yield, high panicle yield and high sugar
content in in juice are possible. As many new
innovation germplasm have been bred.



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The comparison of innovation germplasm and new
lines in 2006 with cultivars introduced from
abroad in 1985



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Now, we have many Line-A, they plant
height from 50 cm to 450 cm, the sugar content in
juice ranged from Brix 3 to 26. There are
several thousands innovation germplasm, they have
different characteristics, Some are short, some
are tall, some are early maturity, some are very
late, the growing season is more than 200 days
some are tolerance to salt-alkali some contains
higher sucrose adapting to use for producing
crystal sugar, some contains glucose, can be used
for producing syrup and ethanol. I believe, we
can breed new cultivars adapts different area and
multi-purpose utilization.



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This Line-A is only one miters high.

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This line-A has character i.e. the stigma can
live 20-30 days. After florescence 20 days given
the pollination, they still can fruit. It
resolved the problem of flower synchronization.

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4. Prompt popularization of SS to resolve
the problems of energy and environment
SS grows quickly, the cultivar Wray grows
by an average of as high as 12 cm/day during July
20-26 in Beijing area. It is the first competitor
in bio-energy system.
2
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The crude Petroleum Price reached to US 96/
barrel on Nov. 3, 2007.  
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The workable reserves in China can be only
recovered for 17 years. China has began an oil
net-imported country since 1993. As the oil used
by cars is constantly increasing, in estimation,
till 2010, the consumption of oil in China will
increase by 80, and until 2050, 50 of the total
oil consumption in China will rely on import.
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The result experiment in USA showed
that SS produced alcohol as much as 6106 l/ha,
while sugarcane which is known as the most
effective solar-energy transformer can only
produce 4680 l/ha. (Knowles, Don, 1984)
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The quantity of carbohydrate synthesized
by SS can be used to produce alcohol 48 liter/ha
day, while that of maize, wheat and grain sorghum
can only produce 15, 3 and 9 liter respectively.
(Xinchuan Qinqin, 1982, Japan)
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A comparative observation on the yield of
ethanol from sugarcane and SS. The average
ethanol (anhydrous at 99.5 conc.) fuel yield of
sugarcane is 4000-5000 l/ha/year, while the
ethanol yield of SS is 5700-6500 l/ha/year (Mr.
Pramod Chaudhari, India) . SS is increase 30 to
43, more than that of sugarcane.
 
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The experiments carried out by Institute
of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences show that
the stalk yield and fresh biomass yield for the
cultivars M-81E and Thies are 89.5 t/ha, 95
t/ha and 128 t/ha, 125 t/ha respectively (Li
Dajue). The experiment carried out in Germany
showed that the highest fresh biomass was 160
t/ha (El Bassam) .

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5. It is the time to develop SS industry
Now, the price of ethanol produced from
sugarcane is only 70 of petroleum. When the
price of oil more than USD 37 per barrel, It will
have the benefit from sugarcane to produce
ethanol. The ethanol production cost from
sugarcane is USD o.25-0.45, while SS is only
USD0.20. The ethanol yield from conventional SS
cultivars is higher 30 more than sugarcane and
the ethanol yield of SHSS would increase 40-80
more than Keller SS. production ethanol from SS
will have a bright future.
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6. The technology of storage stalk of SS will
promote the development of SS industry 6.1
A technology of storage stalk of SS and sugarcane
was patented. This development decreases the
stalk volume by 2/3 and it can be stored for
several years. In this case, the raw material for
sugar or ethanol (SS or sugar cane) can be
transported long distances and the sugar refinery
or ethanol plant would function throughout the
year. The efficiency and benefit of factory would
increase 2-3 time.



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7. A product known as Assorted Fodder
of SS (AFSS) was developed and patented.
The heat energy of the AFSS reached 4030
calorie/g. It is higher 7, 14 and 28
respectively more than that of maize, rice and
dry potato powder. The yield is 5.5 times more
than that of maize. If we popularize this
technique, China could save 10 million ha of land
(from maize) for growing SS to produce ethanol
fuel.



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World Bank indicated that in some
particular areas with scarcity of water and poor
quality soil (North of Brazil, some areas of
Africa, China etc.) SS is an even more promising
crop in comparison with sugarcane for bio-ethanol
production. (Source World Bank, summary in a
study on the Bio-ethanol prospects and
development opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa) .


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A scientist from EU predicts that the
harvest of highenergy sorghum and sugarcane
would be 9 million ha (it is 2.5 times of the
total harvest area of the wheat and maize in the
world) in the world in the medium term (2020).
The total world energy supply from highenergy
sorghum and sugarcane could reach in a very long
term (2060 and beyond) and the total amount of
bio-ethanol would reach 4300 million t/y, the
amount equivalent to the 75 of the present world
primary energy consumption.
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The SS industry will be the biggest industry
I sincerely hope, The IFAD could set up and
organize a International SS Institute. It will
play a great role for increasing the productivity
in the world, the reasons are as following
1) High yield The ethanol yield of new
cultivar would be twice of sugarcane, 4 times of
corn. Growing 1 ha of SHSS 2 ha sugarcane
(sugar or ethanol) 1 ha maize (grain) 1 ha
forestry (fiber). The yield of Super Hybrid Rice
can increase about 20, while, Hybrid Grain
Sorghum can increase 80-100 (Rao, 19 ).


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2) Multipurpose SS is a 4F crop. The
sugar and ethanol can be extracted from the
stalk. The ethanol can be made ethylene and
ethylene can be used to make several thousands of
plastic products. To produce 1 million t of
ethylene should use 1.4 million t of ethanol,
while use oil should use 3 million t. 3)
The biggest industry The development of SS
industry will promote greatly the development of
agriculture, livestock, sugar refinery, ethanol
plants, paper making, machine making,
transportation and relation industry.
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The Shell Group, which forecast the
First World Energy Crisis and recently draws the
outline of energy supply in the future till
2050, renewable energy will occupy the dominant
place in the world. At that time the world will
yarn-dye by green color. Lets us
co-operation closely and to meet the time of
Yarn-dye by Green Color.

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Thank you !