Tobacco identified as potential biofuel

A report published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal has identified tobacco as a potential biofuel source, this unlikely use for tobacco has been devised by researchers at the Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

Tobacco has been identified as a potential biofuel because it can produce oil and sugars more efficiently than other crops, and critically, unlike soya beans or corn, it is not a food source. Of course, they won’t just be using conventional tobacco plants that would otherwise be used in cigarettes; the researchers found that by genetically modifying tobacco plants they could make them produce 20 times more oil than normal.

It is certainly an interesting proposition for tobacco farmers who have been hard hit by recession and the wave of health related warnings against tobacco. While cigarette manufacturers such as Philip Morris USA, which makes Marlboro, have been able to survive by managing the shrinking US market with price increases, and spreading into growing markets such as Russia, farmers have not been so fortunate.

It is estimated that the number of tobacco farms in the USA fell by as much as 72% between 2002 – 2007, according to the US Census of Agriculture. Farmers are skeptical though about the exact processes involved in biofuel production and the economic viability of it, and it is not expected to become a reality for 5 – 10 years. However, Vyacheslav Andrianov, the co-author of the report, believes that it could be an attractive alternative for farmers who normally grow high grade tobacco for the cigarette industry, as the you don’t need the same high quality leaves for biofuel, it can literally be grown like a weed.

Read the article online at: https://www.oilfieldtechnology.com/drilling-and-production/01042010/tobacco_identified_as_potential_biofuel/