Pacific Ethanol implemented the California Low Carbon Ethanol Feedstock Program in collaboration with Aemetis and Calgren, and with implementation support from Chromatin, Inc., Penny Newman, the A.L. Gilbert Company, and JD Heiskell. This program was a transformative feedstock development initiative to assist the state's major ethanol producers in increasing feedstock flexibility to meet both the renewable fuel and greenhouse gas reduction goals stipulated under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard and the state Low Carbon Fuel Standard. The purpose of the project was to initiate sorghum feedstock incentive premiums; carbon intensity reduction for ethanol; the California In-State Sorghum Initiative to bolster sorghum production in California; and California Air Resources Board certification to validate carbon intensity reduction achieved by the project. Pacific Ethanol successfully converted over 56,000 tons of sorghum sourced from the US Midwest into ethanol (at a 30/70 blend of sorghum/corn feedstocks) at their existing ethanol production facility in Stockton, California and produced a total of 5.7 million gallons of sorghum-based ethanol with a carbon intensity value of 76.1 g CO2e/MJ and reduced CO2e greenhouse gas emissions by over 9,600 metric tons. Sorghum processing yielded no significant different in ethanol quality in comparison to corn-based ethanol. The project also successfully completed sorghum grain trials that achieved yields exceeding 6,800 lbs/acre, demonstrated that sorghum can reach reasonable yields even under reduced water application, and brokered the production of sorghum on 1,400 acres in California--the largest in-state annual sorghum production in over 30 years.
