EVALUATION OF SWEET SORGHUM (SORGHUM BICOLOR) HYBRIDS AS BIOENERGY FEEDSTOCKS IN RELATION TO CLIMATIC ASPECTS

In this study, biomass yield and sugar content, and bioethanol potential of six sweet sorghum hybrids were considered to assess the potential role of the genotype in the performance of sorghum. Yield and sugar content values were investigated in relation to the climatic aspects according to the Ellenberg and the Pálfai drought indices, and the effect of drought on biomass yield and sugar content was evaluated to reveal the dominant factor determining the bioethanol yield. Results proved that sweet sorghum holds a significant potential in the semi-arid regions to enhance the amount of the produced bioethanol e.g. in the EU, even though, considering the climatic characteristics of each year, sometimes extreme differences have been found that had a significant impact on its production. However, considering the performance of the hybrids, significant differences were found for both the green yield (5.5 t ha-1) and the sugar content (0.79 Brix %) under similar weather conditions, but sugar content for any of the selected hybrids had no relationship with the drought indices, though, seasonal impact was proved. In contrary, biomass yield showed significant relationship with the Pálfai drought index, suggesting that annual water shortage results in lower sorghum yield in the investigated semi-arid region as the determinative factor. Hybrids of the sweet sorghum showed high but different biofuel potential under the same, extreme climatic conditions via their biomass production variation, thus their field specific experimental testing is advisable to find the best performing ones in this context.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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