Production of Bioenergy Sorghum Under Dryland and Irrigated Conditions in the Southern High Plains.

Producing renewable fuels is a goal set by the federal government to reduce our nation’s dependence on imported oil.  In the semi-arid environment of the southern High Plains any crop produced for renewable fuels will likely need to be grown under dryland or limited irrigated conditions.  New sorghum hybrids are now being developed specifically for cellulosic ethanol production.  Following two years of testing by Texas AgriLife scientists, the average biomass production under irrigation was 18.35 Mg ha^-1 and under dryland 4.03 Mg ha^-1.  Assuming 1 Mg will produce 312 L of ethanol, then potential ethanol produced in the irrigated trial was 5,725 L ha^-1 (612 gal acre^-1) and 1,257 L ha^-1 (134 gal acre^-1) under dryland.