USDA Studying New Sugarcane Varieties For Ethanol Production

The USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has been researching new sugarcane varieties that produce higher levels of sugar and fiber for ethanol production.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists, in cooperation with the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station (LAES) and the American Sugar Cane League, USA (ASCL), have already released three new varieties of "energy sugarcane." They're called that because of their high stalk contents of sugar and fiber, which could eventually serve as complementary ethanol feedstocks.

This particular research is geared towards crops that can be grown for energy production in southern Louisiana but the researchers are also working on cold tolerant sugarcane varieties that can be grown farther north.

Source : Agricultural Research Service