Sugarcane is one of nature’s most efficient natural converters of sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into fuel or biomass – and as such, it is perhaps the world’s fastest growing and largest biomass agricultural crop.

The Australian-based Cooperative Research Centre for Sugar Industry Innovation through Biotechnology (CRC SIIB) is investing in worldclass research into sugarcane as a plant-based biofactory.

Essentially, the CRC SIIB is taking a threepronged approach to biofactory research including engineering sugarcane to make bioplastics; researching biorefinery opportunities from the sugars already produced by sugarcane; and using biomass for natural products and a cheap source of sugars and lignin, a complex polymer that with cellulose, forms the chief part of woody tissue.

For more information: Cooperative Research Centre for Sugar Industry Innovation through Biotechnology,

Julie Lloyd, Tel: +61 7 3331 3309,

www.crcsugar.com