Tyton Bioenergy Systems, Danville, Virginia, created a partnership with agronomists from Virginia Tech and North Carolina State University to research turning tobacco plants into biomass, a report from The Guardian says.
The demand for tobacco in the US has recently declined. In the 1970s, farmers grew more than 2 billion pounds of tobacco, the report says. Production dropped to about 800 million pounds in 2012 and the number of farms have declined from 180,000 in the 1980s to 10,000 in 2012.
Tyton has a contract with Callands, Virginia-based Briar View Farms, which grows tobacco across 80 acres of land. Two of those acres are dedicated to Tyton.
“We’re experimenting with varieties that were discarded 50 years ago by traditional tobacco growers because the flavours were poor or the plants didn’t have enough nicotine,” explained Tyton co-founder Peter Majeranowski in the report.
Researchers are using selective breeding techniques to increase the plant's sugar and seed oil content to create a better feedstock for renewable fuel. These particular varieties are not high maintenance and inexpensive.
The process to grow this type of tobacco is similar to growing smoking tobacco—it requires the same equipment and skills, but the harvest is mechanized, which allows for less labor, the report says. One acre of the plant can produce up to 80 wet tons of biomass.
In 2012, Tyton BioEnergy System was given $2.78 million for research by the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission because the organization believes the company can help build a new market for tobacco growers, the report says. The company currently has 30 acres of research trials and, in 2014, created Tyton NC Biofuels, a partner company that pledged $36 million to start a tobacco ethanol refinery in Hoke County, North Carolina.
