01/31/06 Straw research looks at ethanol use

The University of Idaho has a 700 thousand dollar grant from USDA and the Department of Energy for research on straw as the main stock for ethanol production. ZEMETRA "The ultimate goal is for a producer to be able to sell his grain and go back and harvest the straw and then sell his straw." Wheat breeder Bob Zemetra told us what they're trying to do at the U of I. ZEMETRA "Modify the wheat so there is less lignin in the straw, which would make it easier to get to the sugars that are in the straw so you could extract the sugars and convert it to ethanol. The trick is reducing the lignin just enough to allow for extraction while not taking away the benefits of lignin which is straw strength and potentially disease and insect resistance." Zemetra has a variety called Hubbard that he sees as a good candidate. ZEMETRA - "It has good yield potential, has good straw, stays standing even though it is so tall, high seed production and also a large amount of straw production. And that would be the ideal, that you could have a lot of grain yield and a lot of straw yield that could then be used for ethanol production." Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott