Edward P. Richard, Jr.1 and William F. Anderson2

1Sugarcane Research Unit, USDA Agricultural Research Service, U. S.A.

2 Crop Genetics and Breeding Research Unit, USDA Agricultural Research Service, U. S.A.

5.4 Sugar and Energy Cane

The 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act mandates that 16 billion of the targeted 36 billion gallons of biofuels must be derived from cellulosic sources. Sugarcane as a biofuel feedstock has tremendous potential as a source of this biofuel [1,2]. Sugarcane is a major agronomic crop grown in approximately 80 countries within the latitudes of 30°N and 35°S [3,4]. Utilization of the entire aboveground sugarcane plant and the development of high-flber/low-Brix types of sugarcane as a potential bioenergy feedstock for cellu­losic conversion technologies has been reviewed [5-10]. Sugarcane grown solely for the production of energy is commonly referred to as energy cane [11]. For energy cane to be sustainable, it must economically produce high and consistent yields [7]. This chapter discusses the production of sugar/energy cane as a dedicated bioenergy feedstock with an emphasis to areas where sugarcane may not be traditionally grown. Information on the production of energy cane is limited; however, its production should be somewhat similar to the production of sugarcane for sugar and much of the information presented will be based on research conducted on the production of sugarcane for sugar.