Abstract:As one of the important bio-energy crops, sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (Linn.) Moench subsp bicolor) has attracted the attention of scientific community and decision makers of the world since decades. However, insufficient study has been done about the spatial suitability distribution and ethanol potential of sweet sorghum in China. This paper aims to investigate and evaluate suitability of sweet sorghum across the country′s spatial scales. Data used for the analysis include the spatial data of climate, soil, topography, and land use, and literatures relevant for sweet sorghum studies. It is found from the study, that most of the provinces in China are suitable for sweet sorghum production. However, the suitability levels for sweet sorghum production vary among the regions. Taking unused land as an example, a total of 59.19 million ha of unused land is available for sweet sorghum production, which is mainly located in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The most suitable areas for the production is about 2.87 million ha, those areas are mainly distributed in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Heilongjiang, Shandong and Jilin provinces, and characterized with appropriate natural conditions such as rainfall, soil fertility and land slopes. This study indicates that the ethanol potential of sweet sorghum could reach more than 118.39 million tons from unused land in general, and 5.73-2638 million tons from the most suitable unused land, with an average level of 10.75 million tons. This amount of ethanol production could meet 84.8% of current demand for E20 gasoline of China. It is suggested from the study, that the cost and energy input should be taken into consideration if more production is expected from less suitable land areas.