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by Ryan C. Christiansen
Web exclusive posted March 2, 2009, at 10:38 a.m. CST on www.ethanolproducer.com
To view the story
online, Click Here
Assistant Research Professor Javed Iqbal is
conducting field trials with Jerusalem artichoke plants.
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The Institute for Sustainable and Renewable Resources, in Danville,
Va., is studying the potential to use the Jerusalem artichoke
(Helianthus tuberosis), a perennial native sunflower species, as a
feedstock for producing ethanol.
The institute is a research center jointly affiliated with the
departments of horticulture and forestry at Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) (http://www.vt.edu) that’s focused on developing new opportunities for farming communities affected by declining tobacco and textile markets.
The Jerusalem artichoke grows from tubers and produces inulin, a
fructose polymer. The plant stores the inulin in its stem until it
flowers, when the inulin is then translocated to the tuber. “The plant
grows like a weed,” said Dr. M. Javed Iqbal, a researcher at the
Institute for Sustainable and Renewable Resources. “Even if you harvest
most of the tubers, there will still be one left that will grow back
again. It's kind of a nuisance in the Upper Midwest, because it's hard
to get rid of, which leads to one of the problems, actually: It grows
so thick that you sometimes have to thin it.”
Iqbal said Native Americans used Jerusalem artichoke tubers as
food. Settlers brought the tuber back to Europe and today, scientists
in Spain are looking at the plant as a feedstock for ethanol
production. Iqbal said Chinese researchers are also looking at the
feedstock. “There is a good amount of research going on (for) producing
ethanol from the Jerusalem artichoke,” he said, “but unfortunately, not
in the U.S.—other than me.” Iqbal laughed. “I don't know why people
aren't interested in using it. Everybody is after switchgrass. There is
nothing wrong with that, but we need to have alternative feedstocks,
also.”
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Dr. Iqbal, shown here with graduate students |
To improve the Jerusalem artichoke’s potential as a feedstock for
ethanol, Iqbal said the institute is identifying the genes that
regulate flowering and the translocation of sugars in the plant. The
institute plans to modify the genes to prolong the growing season,
increase sugar production, and delay the translocation of sugars.
Iqbal said because of the sugar that’s produced is inulin, the
Jerusalem artichoke might also be harvested to produce high fructose
syrup, displacing the need for corn starch.
Currently, the institute is growing 23 varieties of Jerusalem
artichoke growing the plant in a one-acre plot; some of the varieties
can grow to be two meters high, Iqbal said. He said the institute’s
goal is to build a pilot-scale biorefinery to produce ethanol from the
plant.
“We need to make people aware that there are a lot of alternative
feedstocks, “Iqbal said. “There are other crops (besides corn) that are
ready to be used. The Jerusalem artichoke is going to be one of them.”
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To
read another article recently published about Dr. Iqbal’s research, see the
latest edition of Virginia Tech’s Outreach Now magazine,
available online at
VT Outreach Now - 12.12.08 (PDF). |
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