07/20/05 Research on straw based ethanol

Farm and Ranch July 20, 2005 Researchers at the University of Idaho are working to make it economical to produce ethanol from cereal straw. Wheat breeder Bob Zemetra explains the challenge. Zemetra: "What we are trying to do there is modify the wheat so there is less lignin in the straw which would make it easier to get at the sugars in the straw so you could extract the sugars and convert to ethanol. The trick is reducing the lignin just enough to allow for extraction while not taking away the benefits of lignin which is straw strength and potentially disease and insect resistance. We are doing it through genetic engineering but the other wheat breeder in the state, Ed Souza, has done some mutation work on barley on a different project, that may also modify the lignin in straw. And we are going to try and look at that to see if that also can be used for ethanol extraction." Zemetra has a variety called Hubbard which he sees as a good candidate. Zemetra: "It has good yield potential. Has good straw. Stays standing even though it is so tall. So the idea is that we have something that has high seed production and also a large amount of straw production. And that would be the ideal, that you could have a lot of grain yield and a lot of straw yield that could then be used for ethanol production." I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.