Scientists believe that the sugarcane could produce up to 15 times more jet fuel per hectare than is currently yielded by soybeans.
The research, which has also looked at sweet sorghum, has been funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy. Its work has led to a strain of sugarcane that produces, instead of sugar, an oil called lipidcane: this can be directly converted to jet-A fuel. If this crop were grown on the 23m acres of marginal land within the south-east of the US, it is believed that it could supply up to 65% of the country's jet-A consumption.
The next step sees the team working on the oil-producing sugarcane to make it more tolerant to cold than the normal plant; this will aid its growth on marginal land that is not used for agriculture. Researchers estimate that lipidcane-derived jet biofuel would cost rather more than US$5 a gallon. The good news is that this is lower than cited prices for renewable jet fuels, although it is still over US$3 per gallon more than the currently quoted jet fuel price.
