Officials at the LSU AgCenter are hoping a five-year, $17.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture can kick-start research needed to make biofuels sustainable in Louisiana. The grant is supposed to help the AgCenter develop a faster, economically viable process for creating biofuels from sugar cane and sweet sorghum. “Grants of this size come very rarely,” John Russin, vice chancellor for research, told the Baton Rouge Press Club this afternoon. Russin says Louisiana has ideal conditions for growing crops that are best suited for biofuels. Yet, he says, the state has only recently come around to the viability of such fuels. “Years ago, when you Googled ‘biofuel Louisiana,’ you got nothing,” Russin says. “But now, we have a tremendous biofuels industry.”
The grant project will require the growing of sweet sorghum and high-fiber “energy” cane, neither of which is currently common in Louisiana. AgCenter researcher Vadim Kochergin, principal investigator of the project and newly named director of the Louisiana Institute for Biofuels and Bioprocessing, says cultivation of those crops should have considerable impact on Louisiana’s economy in the long run. “How do we get farmers excited about growing new crops? Make it a business deal,” he says. The idea is to create a year-round rotation of crops that not only generates fuel, but that does so at a cost comparable to traditional gasoline. “Today, it may not be feasible, but it might be tomorrow,” Kochergin says. “It’s always five years away.”
The AgCenter is partnering with several companies nationwide in the endeavor, including John Deere in Louisiana. LSU is one of five universities nationwide to receive a portion of the FDA’s $136 million package, which is intended to generate rural jobs and decrease dependence on foreign oil. —Ian McGibboney
