Audubon Sugar Institute Funded Projects
Audubon continues to receive support from the American Sugar Cane League to conduct research and extension to benefit the Louisiana sugar industry. In 2007, the league awarded a total of $112,320 from its Dedicated Research and Capital Outlay funds.
Audubon successfully competed for three grants in 2004 from the Louisiana Board of Regents to investigate new areas of work that would benefit the sugar industry long term. These two- and three-year projects are nearing completion with the collaboration of the local sugar mills and matching funds of $75,000 from the American Sugar Cane League. Since 2002, the Board of Regents also has awarded five grants to purchase five new analytical tools that would enhance the capability to run these investigations and other on-going projects. The two enhancement grants received in 2007 totaled $111,659.
Audubon also received from the U.S. Department of Energy a $500,000 award earmarked by the Congressional Appropriations Committee in 2004 to execute the first phase of a five-year biorefinery project to economically and efficiently process sugarcane biomass into ethanol and other value-added products. This effort is done collaboratively with MBI International in Lansing, Michigan. An additional $2.5 million was awarded in 2005 and $1 million was awarded in 2006 to proceed with the next phase.
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