PIKEVILLE, Ky. — While known for its coal industry, Kentucky has also put forth efforts in the alternative energy and biofuel sectors as a way to create energy independence in electricity as well as transportation fuel.

Ethanol has long been the national standard as a fuel additive. But its use of corn as a feedstock has drawn fire from groups who insist the practice has driven up costs for livestock producers and consumers. A company located in eastern Kentucky is experimenting with sugar beets as an alternative to fulfill the federally mandated use of ethanol, while also creating a byproduct that will serve as food source for livestock.

Patriot BioEnergy was formed in February 2009 to explore what potential exists for bioenergy production in Kentucky, according to CEO Roger Ford.

“Our main focus for the last three years has been on transportation fuel, and we are looking at potentials for power generation for biomass in Kentucky,” he said. “The state obviously has a lot of coal and a lot of natural gas, and I think a lot of potential for biomass.”

The key is finding the right crop or feedstock to use. Ford said the first tried was sorghum, which had some limitations including just one growing season in Kentucky, along with a short time to process, both which create issues. It also did not produce enough yield to make the project financially viable.

In an effort to find the right crop, Ford said the company turned to sugar beets, a commodity produced extensively in northern states, including the Dakotas and Michigan. “Our thinking was, if beets can be grown farther north where the climate is colder and the growing season is shorter, what would be the potential to do that in Kentucky?” he said.

Sugar beets can be planted here much the same way as winter wheat, with the possibility of raising two crops within a growing year.

Additionally, Ford has found a company that developed a genetically engineered seed for sugar beets that has been approved as Roundup Ready. “We’ve been conducting tests with other types of beet seed, but we’re looking forward to planting this fall with the Roundup Ready beet in Kentucky,” he said.

“That helps solve a lot of problems for us and for the farmer in going forward and being able to control weeds.”

The end product will be an “energy” beet that will be specific only to use for ethanol production, not for food.

“This takes us beyond the use of corn and moves us to a more advanced feedstock. Since it is not something that would be consumed by humans, it meets that definition, which gets us into the area where the federal government wants us to be in terms of utilizing other feedstocks,” Ford said.

Using sugar beets would produce 800-1,500 gallons of ethanol per acre, based on information from Betaseed, the company providing the specific seeds used by Patriot BioEnergy.

“They have conducted trials with these seeds all over the country and we have been conducting trials here in Kentucky for about a year-and-a-half,” said Ford. “Our concentration of demonstration trials has been in south-central and eastern Kentucky.

“We are looking at identifying land that is not currently under cultivation using marginal farmland, land that may have been previously used for tobacco farming or is currently being used for hay or pastureland.”

Ford emphasized when approaching farmers about the project, he wasn’t asking them to choose between the sugar beets and other crops such as corn or soybeans but rather, about additional acres not currently under cultivation. These are the places he wants to locate.

“The sugar beet has a very high yield per acre, something we would need when considering where we would construct these plants to produce ethanol,” Ford said. “That’s something we would look at, all the available land within a 50-mile radius of the plant to scale that facility to that specific area.”

This beet has the potential to produce four million gallons of ethanol from 5,000 acres and through the processing effort, will create a value-added product that will serve to feed livestock. This is something Ford said, through research, has shown to be nutritionally comparable to corn.

“We would actually be able to produce two revenue streams off of this feedstock,” he said. “Nothing goes to waste on this. We hope to sell that livestock feed back into the Kentucky market.”

As the project moves forward, Ford said the company is considering setting up cooperatives in the areas of production plants and providing equipment to farmers, lessening a producer’s investment in getting started.

“We’re not asking them to make any major investments in equipment. We want to help share that burden and we want to work with the farmers,” he said. “Other options would be to lease land or purchase land where the company would contract the production.”

Ford noted so far, the reaction to the idea has been good through research help coming from the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture and meetings with local agricultural groups including cattle associations and the local Farm Bureau in Whitley County, where the beets are being planted.

“Overall, the response has been very positive from the farming community, at least the ones we have spoken with,” he said.