This week’s announcement from EPA approving grain sorghum as an eligible feedstock as an advanced biofuel is good news for Kansas, according to the Kansas Grain Sorghum Producers Association. Sorghum has long been a major feedstock for Kansas ethanol plants.
“The ability to use both grain sorghum and corn at our Kansas ethanol plants has benefited the plants and our growers for years,” according to KGSPA spokesperson Sue Schulte. “With EPA establishing a pathway to consider sorghum-based ethanol as an advanced biofuel is a real positive for Kansas.
The Western Plains Energy plant located near Oakley is well on its way to taking advantage of the pathway for advanced biofuel status. This will open high value markets for ethanol plants that can use sorghum and meet the additional requirements to qualify as an advanced biofuel.
“Western Plains is committed to using sorghum as a feedstock and invested in building a methane digester utilizing waste from the feedlot across the road to fuel the plant,” Schulte said. “The forward thinking people at Western Plains are already well on their way toward achieving advance biofuel status for their ethanol.”
The EPA’s announcement is significant in allowing the domestic production of advanced biofuels from grain sorghum as envisioned in the 2007 Energy Bill. National Sorghum Producers has worked closely with EPA to establish a biofuels pathway for grain sorghum-based ethanol in the RFS.
“This is a great day for the U.S. sorghum industry,” said NSP Chairman Terry Swanson, a sorghum grower from Walsh, Colo. “NSP has worked tirelessly for more than two years to make this happen. A pathway for grain sorghum as an advanced biofuel not only incentivizes ethanol plants to use grain sorghum as a biofuel feedstock, but it also adds value and profitability for the producer.”
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Dale Rodman also applauded EPA’s announcement.
“Kansas is the top sorghum-producing state in the nation. Not only is sorghum a high-quality feed source for livestock producers but it is a critical non-food feedstock for ethanol plants across our state, where 60 percent of ethanol is produced from grain sorghum,” Governor Brownback said. “The RFS requires the United States to produce 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2022, with an increasing requirement for renewable fuels from non-corn sources. This pathway will open the door for Kansas sorghum farmers and Kansas ethanol plants to help meet both the conventional biofuel and advanced biofuel mandates under the RFS.”
“The ingenuity found in Kansas is second to none. These ethanol plants and likely many more have made significant financial investments necessary to produce ethanol from sorghum and meet advanced biofuel standards. Kansas sorghum farmers and ethanol produdcers are ready and willing to help meet RFS requirements but have been unable to without the sorghum pathway,” Secretary Rodman said. “Approving the sorghum pathway is a critical step forward in our nation’s quest to become energy independent. Not only will we be able to meet advanced biofuel requirements with domestically-produced ethanol instead of importing it from foreign nations but it will also encourage growth on Main Street.”
