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Louisiana sugar farmers worried about the future of their crops may soon enter into a new industry - gasoline.
Researchers at the Audubon Sugar Institute in St. Gabriel are exploring ways to make ethanol, an environmentally friendly fuel additive, from sugar cane.
In 2006, sugar cane had the highest crop value of any crop in the Louisiana, bringing in $537.8 million. It is primarily grown in the southeast and central parts of the state, said Mike Salassi, agricultural economics and agribusiness professor.
"It's really a major contributor to the economy," he said.
Ethanol can be made from corn or sugar cane, Salassi said. Most U.S. ethanol is produced from corn because it is the cheaper of the two crops to grow.
Ninety-five percent of the ethanol produced in the United States is made from corn, Salassi said. Because the demand for ethanol is increasing, the price of corn has gone up, causing producers to question the effectiveness of ethanol production.
"People are starting to ask if it's efficient to have so much land used for making fuel instead of actual food," he said.
Ethanol is added to gasoline toincrease the amount of octane. The old additive MGBH was found to contaminate groundwater, so a concerted effort is being made to switch to ethanol, Salassi said.
Salassi said researchers are looking to other methods of producing ethanol to combat the rising price of corn.
With the increased price of corn comes the possibility of a state sugar surplus.
The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement will phase out all import duties by 2008 on agricultural goods coming to the United States from Mexico - including sugar. Salassi said if Mexico has a surplus of sugar, it would only have to pay the transportation costs to ship it to the United States.
Salassi said the United States would accept the sugar to have its own surplus and decrease consumer prices.
This, however, would hurt U.S. sugar cane producers - including those in Louisiana.
Greg Gravois, owner of Blackberry Farms in Vacherie, said if there were a future glut in the market and sugar was in less demand, farmers would have to turn to the production of ethanol.
"The sugar market is really unstable right now," he said. "So we're always looking for different ways to make a dollar."
Ethanol is made from sugar cane by using enzymes to break down the cane's cellulose into sugars, said Giovanna DeQueiroz, assistant professor of agriculture and researcher at the Audubon Sugar Institute.
Bagasse, the leftover fiber material after the cane has been crushed to remove juices, is usually burned to produce energy for sugar mills where raw sugar is produced.
DeQueiroz said the Institute is developing ways to take this waste material and convert it to ethanol.
"They have other options," she said. "A lot of bagasse is left on the fields. We want to tell farmers that they can put it to use instead of just burning it."
Bagasse is soaked in acids like sulfuric acid or bases such as ammonia to soften the stiffness of the cane. Enzymes are then added to the bagasse to break down the plant's cellulose into the mono-sugars glucose and xylose.
"There's still work being done with the enzymes to figure out which ones work the best to get the most sugars," DeQueiroz said.
The Institute hopes ethanol-making facilities will be attached to current sugar mills, DeQueiroz said. Because the mills only run from late September to early January, the other months could be used to make ethanol from bagasse leftover from the harvest season.
"These mills only run four months out of the year," she said. "It will make it much more economical when they are in use all the time."
Gravois said it isn't sensible to use sugar cane for ethanol production.
"It's just not effective to use because it costs too much," he said. "Corn can be grown just about anywhere, and it's just better to use it because it's cheaper."
The sugar industry took a hit after Hurricane Katrina and increased urban development has also contributed to loss of acreage, Gravois said. Because sugar cane can only be grown in Florida, Louisiana, Texas and Hawaii, it is not feasible to grow it solely for ethanol purposes.
DeQueiroz said farmers and other sugar cane producers may eventually have to choose whether they want to grow the crop to produce raw sugar or ethanol.
Others think there is room on the market for sugar cane both as a raw sugar producer and ethanol producer.
"There's no way they would switch to ethanol completely," Salassi said. "The main product is sugar and will continue to be sugar."
Producers would consider making room in the industry to produce some ethanol, he said.
"Obviously, if it provides an economic opportunity for them, they would try to fit it into their market," he said.
Gravois said he is hopeful about researchers finding a way to produce ethanol on a wide scale but is doubtful about the outcome of the experiments.
"If I can get a higher price for my cane, it'll be great," he said. "But the technology just isn't there."
------ Contact Nanci Velez at nvelez@lsureveille.com
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