Switchgrass is a native species of North America’s tallgrass prairie and is widely considered an ideal raw material for a new generation of biofuels made from non-food crops.
Energy crop company Ceres, Inc. wants to genetically modify the plant to become an even better source of fuel and is sponsoring research at South Dakota State University in Brookings to help make it happen.
Ceres was founded as a plant genomics company and holds one of the world’s largest proprietary collections of fully sequenced plant genes. The company, whose equity investors include heavyweights like Monsanto and Soros Private Equity Partners, licenses its technology and traits to other organizations.
The cooperative, multi-year program at South Dakota State Universit will focus on developing higher-yielding cultivars adapted to production in northern latitudes, often called upland types.
South Dakota State University (SDSU) plant breeder Arvid Boe, Ph.D, will lead field and greenhouse research, which will involve cross breeding and selections supported by Ceres technology. University researchers will also study genetic diversity in this perennial grass species, among other objectives.
Peter Mascia, Ceres vice president of product development, said that South Dakota has been a key supporter of cellulosic biofuels, and switchgrass, in particular. “Dr. Boe has decades of experience in switchgrass and is regarded in the industry as a leading expert in upland types. This joint product development program allows us to expand our existing switchgrass breeding efforts for what we believe will be an important biofuel production region.” He noted that improving yield and plant composition will have a significant impact on the economics for farmers and biorefineries as the industry expands.
A veteran breeder of perennial grasses, Dr. Boe believes switchgrass can be competitive with conventional crops, especially on the semi-arid land of South Dakota and Nebraska. “Switchgrass is tolerant of a wide range of environmental conditions, and compared with many other perennial grasses and conventional crop plants, it produces relatively large amounts of biomass under both good and poor growing conditions,” he said.
To maximize performance, he noted that cultivars intended for biofuel production on the northern Great Plains must be highly productive and able to persist in cold climates. “For sustainable production of biomass feedstock in the northern Great Plains, cultivars developed from strains of switchgrass indigenous to the northern and central Great Plains will likely have a long-term yield advantage over non-adapted strains from outside of those regions.”
A diverse species, switchgrass is a major part of the prairie that once dominated the landscape of North America. Depending on the seed variety and climatic conditions, switchgrass can grow nine feet tall with deep roots that reduce erosion and increase soil carbon levels, among other benefits.
In October, Ceres announced a multi-year collaboration to develop high-biomass sorghums with Texas A&M University. The company’s research and development efforts also cover miscanthus, energycane and woody crops. Early products will include high-yielding switchgrass cultivars scheduled for release in 2009 and sorghum hybrids scheduled the following year.
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