Several established agricultural crops are currently used as bioenergy and bioproducts feedstocks. These crops include food and feed crops such as corn and grain sorghum, oilseed crops such as soybean, and sugar crops such as sugarcane.
The majority of corn is used as livestock feed, exported, or used as sweeteners (high fructose corn syrup), but a significant and increasing portion is used to produce bioenergy and bioproducts including fuel ethanol (about 19% of production in 2005) and biodegradable plastics and synthetic polymers (e.g., nylon). Grain sorghum is produced primarily as cattle feed, however, about 15% of the crop is currently used to produce ethanol or other bioproducts. Other food and feed grain crops such as wheat, barley, and oat are not widely used as biomass feedstocks, but from a technology perspective, could be.
Soybean is produced primarily for livestock feed, with about 1/3 of production exported. Soybean oil is used mainly for food uses, but in 2004, about 4 percent of production was used to produce bioproducts (such as inks, adhesives and binders, and used in plastics and detergents among others) and in 2005, about 61 million gallons of biodiesel was produced from soybean oil. A number of other oilseed crops are currently produced in the U.S. including sunflower, safflower, flax, and canola. The principal current uses for these crops are for food (cooking oils) and livestock feed, but they could technically serve as bioenergy and bioproducts feedstocks.
Sugar crops such as sugarcane and sugarbeets are not currently used to produce biofuels in the U.S., although sugarcane is the principal feedstock used to produce ethanol in Brazil. The molasses produced during sugar processing could also be used to produce biofuels. The bagasse remaining after the extraction of sugar from sugarcane is currently used to produce heat and steam needed by sugar mills.