Alongside a country route in rural Kentucky , it ’s pretty vulgar to see rows of corn stretching all the way to the horizon , but all of those green stalks might not actually be corn plants . On closer inspection , you would n’t see any ear , and the head of the plant seem a little bit more like wheat than corn [ seed : In the Field ] . What you ’re probably looking at is fresh sorghum .
The sorghum molasses plant life is actually a eatage that ’s native to Egypt and circulate throughout the rest of Africa [ source : Oklahoma 4H ] . granger in the U.S. have been growing honeyed genus Sorghum and using the stalks to produce sirup since at least the mid-1800s [ source : Wittgreve ] . sorghum molasses is a grain , and mellisonant sorghum is a specific variety selected for its higher sugar message [ source : Food and Agriculture Organization ] . What makes sweet sorghum specially attractive to farmers is itsdroughtresistance . It does n’t command a lot of water system , so it ’s an idealistic craw for area that do n’t see a lot of rainfall , like parts of China and Africa as well as in the U.S.
Processed syrup from the genus Sorghum plant life is amber in color and seem a mass like maple sirup [ source : Mallon ] . In fact , you’re able to basically treat it like maple syrup in formula , and some folk even use it to top their pancake . Farmers also mix the going from making sorghum molasses sirup into animal feed , but food for people and animals is n’t the master use for sweet sorghum . It ’s become a hard currency crop since researcher strike that we can utilise genus Sorghum sirup to produce biofuels .
As the U.S. digest from crippling droughts in many of its farming regions , sweet-smelling sorghum ’s popularity is skyrocketing . Sweet genus Sorghum agriculture used to take place primarily in the southeastern United States , but now farmers in the Corn Belt are jumping on the sorghum molasses power train as droughts destroy their corn craw . honeyed genus Sorghum ’s multiple uses – as food and fuel – make it an attractive option to corn for many Fannie Farmer [ source : Baragona ] .
Sweet Sorghum Syrup for Cooking
Sweet sorghum is just one eccentric of genus Sorghum plant , and the in high spirits sugar content is what spot it from other type of sorghum . There are several varieties of dulcet sorghum , and husbandman breed these specifically for their bouquet [ source : Bitzer ] . Sorghum syrup producer crush the stalk to extract the sweet-smelling juice , just likesugar cane . After distill the juice , they cook it down to create the sorghum syrup – also called sorghum molasses – that stocks store shelves [ reservoir : UGA Extension ] .
you may use genus Sorghum sirup to replace other liquid sweeteners , like honey , molasses , maple sirup or even whitened sugar in recipes , though on its own sorghum syrup is more like maple sirup than any of these other sweeteners . The trick to substituting sorghum syrup for other sweeteners is knowing what ratio to employ . you could interchange genus Sorghum sirup in place of maple syrup or Indian corn syrup in formula using a one - to - one ratio , but for other lure , you may require to adjust your recipe slimly . The National Sweet Sorghum Producers & Processors Association hasa ready to hand listof some common sweeteners and the proportion to use when you want to replace them with sorghum syrup .
Sorghum sirup is also is more nourishing than some other more polished sweetener . Unlike board sugar , it contain iron , calcium , and K along with other micronutrient [ source : National Sweet Sorghum Producers & Processors Association ] .
We ’ve been fudge with sorghum syrup for century of days , but what ’s really made this crop catch on in late years is its voltage as abiofuelto supersede or supplement crude oil in our fuel supply .
Creating Biofuel from Sweet Sorghum
About a third of the sorghum turn in the U.S. in 2011 was processed into ethanol , about 71 million bushel [ source : Schroeder , USDA ] .
Traditionally , corn whisky has been thebiofuel cropof choice , but sweet sorghum is a much more versatile plant . Not only is it extremely drouth broad , but as Christopher DeMorro , site director atGas 2.0 , an alternative vim World Wide Web site , points out , " What make it really interesting is that sugared genus Sorghum can be grown in a broad variety of temperate and tropic areas . " That versatility and its drouth margin mean that husbandman are starting to constitute more sweet sorghum , specially for ethanol and biodiesel production .
Sweet sorghum is poise to become a major feedstock forcreating ethanol . sodbuster already grow odoriferous genus Sorghum for ethanol product , but Kansas company Western Plains Energy LLC is project to mass produceadvanced ethanolfrom sweet sorghum by the ending of 2012 [ source : Nicholson ] . make regular ethanol produces glasshouse flatulency emissions . Advanced ethyl alcohol cut that environmental impact substantially , so this breakthrough could entail a encouragement in production for sweet sorghum - based ethanol [ reference : Nicholson ] .
produce biodiesel – as opposed to ethanol – from sweet sorghum is an even more late development . In May 2012 Biofuel party Amyris announce results from a successful pilot political program using angelic sorghum [ source : Schroeder ] . The big advantage over ethanol , DeMorro say is that any diesel car can race biodiesel with minimal modifications . " Usually it require a extra heat armored combat vehicle to make the biodiesel more fluid , unlike ethanol which requires an engine specifically built to accommodate it and even then usually want to be mix with regular gasoline . "
As flatulence prices persist in to go up , biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel are becoming more attractive , and finding new crops to bring forth biodiesel is going to be critical to our energy future . The chief reason that we ’ve swear so heavily on corn for biofuel in the U.S. is that thanks to subsidy and other government incentives we were already grow so much of it [ source : Nicholson ] . What establish gratifying sorghum even more attractive than edible corn for producing biofuels is that it suffice some of the controversial head surrounding biofuel output and its societal and environmental impacts .
Sweet Sorghum and the Biofuel Controversy
Producingfuel from food cropsis extremely controversial . For every acre of Din Land growing Zea mays for biofuel , that ’s one less acre of land acquire food for mass . There ’s also the encroachment of growing the crop itself . Farming can be passing urine - intensive , which is a big mickle when so many area are struggling with drouth . You also have to consider the impact that crop production has on the stain .
The most well - known issuing withbiofuelsis probably the food for thought versus fuel problem . You might commemorate the " Tortilla Protest " in Mexico City back in 2007 . When the price of corn exploded , quadruple the cost of maize tortillas , a dietary raw material in Mexico , many blamed biofuel production [ source : Kennedy ] . Just as with corn , growing sweet sorghum to create fuel means that much less land to raise food , but thanks to a new hybrid sorghum molasses plant , sweet sorghum could provide the best of both worlds .
Researchers have formulate a intercrossed variety of sweet sorghum molasses that produces an edible food grain [ generator : New Agriculturalist ] . People can run through the grain and juice the stalks to create biofuel . Conventional odoriferous sorghum does n’t do duple duty like this , but this fresh hybrid could be the solution . Right now , the byproduct of biofuel production from sweet sorghum can be added to animal provender , which intend less waste and growing less Indian corn and metric grain to feed animals [ author : chamber ] .
Sweet genus Sorghum is also much more piddle - effective than most biofuel crops . Producing ethanol from sweet genus Sorghum apply about two thirds the amount of water of corn and one one-seventh the water of sugar cane . That ’s a big mickle in drought - stricken orbit both here in the U.S. and overseas . India has been a major producer of ethanol from sweet sorghum , for good example , and a company in the Philippines started make large amounts of genus Sorghum ethyl alcohol in May of 2012 [ source : Gomez ] .
Like any other craw , fresh sorghum has some drawbacks . There ’s the problem of infectious mononucleosis - cropping : set the same crop in the same battleground year after year . This is n’t good for soil health , and it ’s as much a problem with mass - give rise seraphic sorghum molasses as it is with corn [ reservoir : Remvos ] . The result to this problem is rotating the crops , dedicate the land a " break " every two years and planting something complementary like alfalfa to help improve the dirt .
I was thrilled when I found out that I ’d get to write an article about unfermented sorghum and all of its uses . I ’m sort of a food nerd , and when I first learned that I ’d be researching sweet genus Sorghum , the first thing that came to head was article I ’d read about sorghum crop helping farmers struggle hunger in Africa . It was exciting to learn that on top of the human-centred applications programme for sorghum , the sweet variety might just help us kick our fogy fuel addiction !
