BioFuels Journal

Date Posted: November 18, 2008

Linebacker™ sorghum and other high-biomass, non-food crops for production of cellulosic biofuels offer new opportunities for farmers and seedsmen

Linebacker™ sorghum

Kansas City, MO (3 November 2008) – At the 2008 American Seed Trade Association Farm and Lawn Seed Conference and Western Seed Association Annual Meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, Edenspace Systems Corporation today announced the availability of Linebacker™ sorghum, the company’s first Energy Sorghum™ hybrid seed product.

Edenspace‘s Linebacker sorghum is a non-transgenic, high-yielding photoperiod sensitive (forage) sorghum that is an ideal feedstock for production of cellulosic biofuels such as ethanol and butanol. Production of biofuels from plant leaves and stems is widely seen as necessary to meet the surging demand for renewable transportation fuels.

A growing number of ethanol producers across the Midwest are developing facilities for converting such lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels. These facilities require feedstocks that are abundant, easy to produce and harvest, and readily processed. High-performing Edenspace Linebacker sorghum meets these requirements and offers a new market opportunity for farmers, seedsmen and processors.

Linebacker sorghum and other non-transgenic hybrids have outstanding agronomic characteristics as well as superior processing characteristics for biofuels production, out-yielding alternative biomass crops. Linebackertm sorghum is now available in commercial quantities.

Next Generation Biomass Crops

Edenspace is also developing next-generation crops for conversion to biofuels and will soon offer varieties of sorghum, corn, switchgrass, and other crops that are bioengineered for enhanced energy performance by incorporating genes for cellulases and other process-optimizing traits.

The effect will be to greatly reduce the cost of producing biofuels from non-food plant biomass. When activated after harvest, biodegradable endoplant cellulases “unzip” cellulose in plant leaves and stems, yielding simple sugars such as glucose that can be fermented into ethanol, butanol or other biofuels.

Producing enzymes in the plants themselves, rather than in microbial bioreactors, is expected to substantially reduce downstream costs. Integrating high-efficiency endoplant enzyme crops with new techniques for storage, transportation and processing is projected to double per-acre ethanol yields, reduce the cost of cellulosic ethanol by 20%, increase farm income per acre by 25%, and relax pressures on farmland availability and water use.

Headquartered in Junction City, Kansas, Edenspace is a commercial leader in developing improved crops for production of biofuels from non-food agricultural residues and dedicated energy crops. The company seeks to reduce today’s high costs of capital equipment, materials, energy, and disposal required to produce cellulosic biofuels, as well as reduce CO2 emissions and pollution from fossil fuels, increase energy independence, and raise rural and farm incomes.

The company has entered into key development agreements with the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Kansas State University, Michigan State University, Oklahoma State University, and the leading ethanol design/build firm, ICM, Inc. The company received the Environmental Business Journal’s 2004 Technology Award and the DaimlerChrysler 1999 Environmental Excellence award.

With expertise in plant biotechnology, agronomy, and environmental science, Edenspace is developing innovative, sustainable technologies to meet energy needs, improve human health, and protect the environment.

See Related Websites/Articles:

• Edenspace

more CELLULOSE...