Sugarcane better than soya bean as biodiesel source

New York: US scientists have developed a new way to extract biodiesel from sugarcane, providing a cost-effective alternative to the biodiesel produced from soya bean the current primary source of plant-based oils.

Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign altered sugarcane metabolism to convert sugars into lipids, or oils, which could be used to produce biodiesel.

The natural makeup of sugarcane is typically only about 0.05 percent oil. But within a year of starting the project, the team was able to boost oil production 20 times, to approximately one percent.

Subsequently, the so-called "oil-cane" plants were producing 12 percent oil. The ultimate goal is to achieve 20 percent. "If all of the energy that goes into producing sugar instead goes into oil, then you could get 17 to 20 barrels of oil per acre," explained Stephen P. Long, lead investigator on the project.