Sweet sorghum promoted as `smart` biofuel

A corn-like plant that can grow as high as an elephant`s eye on some of Earth`s driest farmland shows promise as a "smart" biofuel that won`t cut into world food supplies, an agriculture expert said on Monday.

Sweet sorghum, used in the United States mostly as animal feed, offers a 10-foot (3 metre) stalk that can be turned into ethanol without damaging the food grain that grows at its top, Mark Winslow said in an interview.

Unlike corn-based ethanol, which uses one and a half times as much energy in its production as it offers as an end product, sweet sorghum produces eight units of fuel for every unit of fuel used to make it in developing countries, Winslow said.

U.S. Department of Agriculture studies show corn-based ethanol produces one and a half times as much fuel as the energy used to make it.

Even in the United States, where mechanized production uses more fuel, sweet sorghum ethanol should still have four times the energy yield of corn-based ethanol, said Winslow of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics.