Sorghum Uses—Ethanol

doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-803157-5.00004-6

Sorghum Biochemistry

An Industrial Perspective

2016, Pages 181-252

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-803157-5.00004-6 Get rights and content

Abstract

Sweet sorghum has sugar-rich stalks containing approximately 16–18% fermentable sugar, which can be directly fermented into ethanol by yeast. Technical challenges of using sweet sorghum for biofuels are a short harvest period for highest sugar content and fast sugar degradation during storage. Sweet sorghum juice mainly contains sucrose, glucose, and fructose. Sucrose accumulation initiates at the flowering stage and increases up to maturity. The highest green cane was observed in June planting in all genotypes, followed by February, December, and October. The presence of high reducing sugars and invertase activity make the juice unable to produce good quality jaggery and sugar. Therefore, sweet sorghum juice is only suitable for ethanol and syrup production. Harvesting at a physiological maturity was found to be optimum in terms of juice volume, percent extractability, and percentage of total soluble sugars. A pilot study was conducted and recovery of ethanol was approximately 9% of the juice.

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Chapter 4 - Sorghum Uses—Ethanol

Abstract