Environmentally and economically

sustainable production of fuels and

chemicals from sweet sorghum

• Wilfred Vermerris• University of Florida Genetics Institute• Department of Microbiology and Cell Science

John EricksonJose Lopez

Terry Felderhoff

Lonnie IngramIsmael NievesJoe Sagues

Elena TenFrankie TsuiAmelia DempereChen LingArun Srivastava

Biofuel production from sweet sorghum in Florida

• Stress tolerant (drought, heat) and limited input requirements compared to sugar cane

• Minimal competition with food production• Ideal crop for transition from sugar-based to

lignocellulosic biofuels• Compatible with sugarcane production• 7,000 L ethanol per hectare from juice

Next-generation sweet sorghums: Sustainable production of fuels and chemicals from juice and bagasse

pentoses

fuels

chemicals

fuels

chemicals

CO2

ferm

ent

atio

n

ferm

ent

atio

n

pre

tre

atm

ent

hexoses

sacc

harif

icatio

n

lignin

nanotubes

chemicals

juice

heat

bagasse CBP

Sweet sorghum

plastics

Improved sweet sorghum cultivars

• Five new sweet sorghum cultivars with higher sugar and biomass yield compared to currently available germplasm

• Excellent disease resistance

Commercial hybrid New UF cultivars

Lignin nanotubes for biomedical applications

Lignin base-layer

Deposition of DHP liner

Dissolution of membrane

membrane

109 pores cm-2

109 nanotubes cm-2

Caicedo et al. (2012) Nanotechnology; Ten et al. (2014) Biomacromolecules

15 μm