1. Making sugarcane go the extra mile Yuda Benjamin Supervisor: Prof. JF. Görgens New Voices in Science Colloquium 2 nd December 2011 Wallenberg Research Centre, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2. Drivers to alternatives fuels Global warming: transportation sector contributes about 25% of CO 2 emission Reduce dependence on fossil fuels: not sustainable Price fluctuation Political instability in oil producing countries South Africa target is to achieve 2% (400 million litres pa) penetration of biofuels to the liquid fuels by 2013

3. Comparisons of ethanol yields from different crops Equivalent to 6 560 L of petrol

4. Making ethanol Fermentation ETHANOL Sugar from juice Fibre/ bagasse Fermentation Glucose Unlocking the structure Cellulose to glucose COMPOSITION Cellulose Hemicellulose Lignin

5. Our Research Initiatives To select sugarcane varieties that yield more ethanol through: –Higher productivity per unit land –Higher sugar contents per unit plant –High fibre carbohydrates –Fibre with low lignin To optimise the pre-treatment conditions of the preferred varieties to improve yield

6. Summary of fibre composition from 115 sugarcane varieties Components Composition range Cellulose 36.3—45.2 Hemiccellulose 23.1—31.0 Lignin 14.4—23.1 Extractives 3.5—12.4 Ash 0.6—3.4

7. Total ethanol yield per hectare from different sugarcane varieties SA sugarcane

8. Sugar liberated from different fibres

9. Searching for the optimum pretreatment conditions

10. The sugar recovery at the optimum pretreatment conditions

11. Comparison of total ethanol at optimum pretreatment condition

12. Closing remarks Fibre selection is a possible way of reducing energy and enzyme requirements Think about 200 years to come –Global warming –Oil availability and affordability Fuel from plants is our future: –Reduce global warming –Create sustainable employment –Improve agriculture

13. Acknowledgements 1.Prof. Johann Görgens 2.Dr. Hongbin Cheng 3.Lignocellulosic research group 4.South Africa Sugarcane Research Institute 5.Technology and Human Research for Industry Program

14. Thank you for your attention