“Sweet sorghum is grown in the U.S. for cooking and livestock feed. But the tall plant also could help at the gas pump. A sugary sap inside the plant’s stalk, which grows as tall as 12 feet, can be turned into a potent biofuel, and experts and companies are studying its potential with hopes that farmers will want to plant more of it. Ethanol made from the stalk’s juice has four times the energy yield of the corn-based ethanol, which, unlike sweet sorghum, is already in the marketplace. Sweet sorghum produces about eight units of energy for every unit of energy used in its production. That’s about the same as sugarcane but four times as much as corn.” (05/15/08)