Blade Energy Crops, a seed brand specifically designed as energy crops, was launched by Ceres at the BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology in Chicago (29th April). Announcing the launch of the brand Ceres ceo and president, Richard Hamilton, said; "Blade will be the first multi-crop seed brand supplying the new market for non-food, low-carbon biofuel feedstocks," These biomass-dense crops will be grown as raw materials for next-generation biofuels and biopower. One of the great appeals of energy crops is that they can thrive on agricultural lands that are ill-suited to food production.

"Supported by the latest technology in genomics-based breeding, trait development and compositional analysis, we are positioning Blade as a premium seed brand for biofuel and biopower feedstocks. For growers, that means high yields and greater yield stability. Downstream, it means easier processing, and ultimately, more energy per ton of biomass," said Hamilton. "From both an economic and environmental perspective, if we are going to turn plant matter into fuel, we should use feedstocks that give us the maximum fuel yield per acre."

Seed supplies of the first products to be sold under the Blade name are currently being multiplied for Spring 2009 sowing. These include the nation's first switchgrass cultivars developed specifically for biofuels, EG 1101 and EG 1102, as well as high-biomass types of sorghum. "We expect the seed market for dedicated energy crops to grow in step with investments in bioenergy," Hamilton said.

The company says the Blade name was inspired by its first crops, switchgrass, sorghum and canes, which are from a category of closely related grass species, known as C4 grasses. C4 grasses are the natural world's most efficient engines of photosynthesis, the process by which plants store solar energy in the form of carbohydrates. New technologies have made it possible to convert the most abundant form of these energy-rich molecules, called cellulose, into renewable fuels.

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