67-8 Production of Bioenergy Sorghum Under Dryland and Irrigated Conditions in the Southern High Plains.

Poster Number 157

See more from this Division: C03 Crop Ecology, Management & Quality
See more from this Session: C03 Graduate Student Poster Competition
Monday, November 1, 2010
Long Beach Convention Center, Exhibit Hall BC, Lower Level
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Jacob Becker1, Brent Bean1 and William Rooney2, (1)Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Service, Amarillo, TX
(2)Dept. of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
Producing renewable fuels is a goal set by the federal government to reduce our nation’s dependence on imported oil.  In the semi-arid environment of the southern High Plains any crop produced for renewable fuels will likely need to be grown under dryland or limited irrigated conditions.  New sorghum hybrids are now being developed specifically for cellulosic ethanol production.  Following two years of testing by Texas AgriLife scientists, the average biomass production under irrigation was 18.35 Mg ha-1 and under dryland 4.03 Mg ha-1.  Assuming 1 Mg will produce 312 L of ethanol, then potential ethanol produced in the irrigated trial was 5,725 L ha-1 (612 gal acre-1) and 1,257 L ha-1 (134 gal acre-1) under dryland.
See more from this Division: C03 Crop Ecology, Management & Quality
See more from this Session: C03 Graduate Student Poster Competition