The unlocking of the sequence of the genome will allow experts to enhance and capitalize on sorghum’s potential not only as food or feed but as well as a source of biofuel.

Sorghum is next to corn as an excellent source of biofuel in the United States. The viability of sorghum is attributed to its resistance to drought and high productivity. One bushel of sorghum produces the same amount of biofuel as corn but requiring less water in the process.

Experts foresee the higher demand for sorghum as development of cellulosic biofuel production moves forward.

Sorghum is only the second grass genome that was completely sequenced to date after rice. Its structure is composed of 730 million nucleotides and is larger by as much as 75% than rice.

The unlocking of the genome of the sorghum may lead to the sequencing of other plants which may also have a high potential to be bioenergy crops.

The platform of the study was based on the Human Genome Project which used the genome shotgun methodology. The specimen is treated by looking at short DNA segments which are partly sequenced and with the aid of very powerful computers these are reconstructed to form the original sequence.

The amount of mathematical problems to solve due to the length and repletion of the soghum genome was the primary hurdle of the study — but the hard work done to complete it might lead to new alternative fuels, and that’s worth every single penny invested, in my opinion!

Honda is one of the bigger players in the Bio-Ethanol R&D market, so this really is extremely exciting news for people hoping to see Bio-Ethanol driven cars become mainstream in the next decade.

“The planned facility, Honda R&D Co., Ltd. Fundamental Technology Research Center, will be constructed within Kazusa Akademia Park located in Kisarazu, Chiba. The car company is intending to construct a single building measuring 1,050 m2 for a research facility on a 5,000 m2 lot. On April 2009, the construction will start to be able to start the facility’s operations in November 2009.”

To date, Germany is the biggest biodiesel producer in the EU. In 2007 alone, Germany produced 2.890 million tones. This is a far cry from France’s 0.872 million tones, which came in second. This data is from the European Diesel Board.

It was downhill from there, though, as Germany’s biodiesel consumption fell by a significant 0.7 million tones last year. They’re projecting further drops by up to 10 million tones compared to 2007’s figures. According to UFOP, the German oilseeds association, these drops are caused by the huge taxes placed on biofuel in general.

These German tax mandates and incentives were first drafted in 2008, raising the energy tax on biofuel up a notch, and excluding soy bean oil-based fuel from German mandates and incentives. These amendments were put through the EU Commission for review because they seem to be misaligned with the union’s state aid regulation.

While the commission ordered for a standstill of the new German laws, Germany responded that they will continue implementing parts of the law which were not criticized by the EU Commission.

So far, three aspects of the law dodged Commission criticism: exclusion of B99 and other previously supported fuels from mandates and incentives; regulation of biofuel quota and mandates; and the regulation of fuel tax increase.

The final decision from the EU is pegged to be released by February or March.