Room: Yangtze 2
Date: Friday, 22 May 2026
Time: 09:00 - 10:00 CEST
Session code IDO.1
Innovative technologies for market applications
Biorefinery of Sweet Sorghum Based on Advanced Solid State Fermentation
Short Introductive summary
China and the European Union both face significant pressure from high dependence on imported oil and natural gas, alongside the challenge of achieving carbon reduction targets. Utilizing marginal land to grow industrial crops for producing biofuels and biomaterials is one of the most practical and feasible solutions to address these issues. Sweet sorghum is a C4 plant with high tolerance to draught and saline-alkali, and high nitrogen and light use efficiency. It serves as a triple-purpose crop for grain, energy, and feed. The European Commission supported the commercial cultivation of sweet sorghum and research on biofuel production through its SWEETFUEL project under the PF7 program. The EU has 65 million hectares of marginal land, while China has 34 million hectares of utilizable saline-alkaline land. If sweet sorghum is cultivated on these lands, besides using the grain for food and feed, the stalks can serve as feedstock for biorefineries based on advanced solid-state fermentation (ASSF) to produce ethanol, ruminant animal feed or cellulosic ethanol, biogas, and pulp, thereby contributing to energy self-sufficiency and carbon neutrality.
Presenter
Shizhong LI
Tsinghua University, Division of Biofuels & Biochemicals, P.R. CHINA
Presenter's biography
Professor and deputy director of the Institute of New Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, adjunct Professor of Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, the executive director of MOST-USDA Joint Research Center for Biofuels, the director of Beijing Engineering Research center for biofuels.
Biographies and Short introductive summaries are supplied directly by presenters and are published here unedited
Co-authors:
Session reference: IDO.1.1