Abstract: In light of the world’s energy crisis and the fast deterioration of the global environment, the development of renewable energy sources is urgently needed. The importance of biomass energy as a clean, renewable energy source has been recognized. Increasing a plant’s biomass is a bottleneck to overcome in developing bioenergy. Sweet is high in biomass production and sugar content, tolerates drought, water logging, low fertility, high salinity and alkalinity of the soil; And is regarded as an energy crop with great potential for improvement. This paper reviews the recent advances and problems in research into the taxonomy, biological characteristics, germplasm evaluation and genome information of sweet sorghum. It discusses the prospects of research and development of sweet sorghum as an energy crop.

Key words: bioenergy, biomass, research progress, sweet sorghum