Assessment of Sugarcane Billet Harvester on Recovery of Sweet Sorghum Biomass for Ethanol Production
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Assessment of Sugarcane Billet Harvester on Recovery of Sweet Sorghum Biomass for Ethanol Production Daira Aragon 1
&
Howard P. Viator 1,2,3 & Franz S. Ehrenhauser 1
# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2017
Abstract Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is a promising bioenergy crop for the production of ethanol and bio-based products. Sugarcane billet harvesters can be used to harvest sweet sorghum. Multiple extractor fan speed settings of these harvesters allow for separating the extraneous matter in the feedstock, which has been associated with increased milling throughput and better juice quality at the processing facility. This removal is not completely selective, and some stalk material is also lost. These losses can be higher for sweet sorghum than sugarcane due its lower weight. This paper presents an assessment of how the speed of the primary extractor fan of a sugarcane billet combine used for harvesting sweet sorghum affects the biomass yield, biomass losses, and quality at delivery for the production of ethanol from extracted juice and fiber. Three primary extractor fan speeds (0, 800, and 1100 rpm) were evaluated. Higher fan speeds decreased fresh biomass yields by up to 28.3 Mg ha−1. Juice quality was not significantly different among treatments. Ethanol yield calculated from sweet sorghum harvested at 0 rpm was 6075 L ha−1. This value decreased by about half for material harvested at 1100 rpm due to the differences in biomass yield.
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s12155-017-9839-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Daira Aragon [email protected]
1
Audubon Sugar Institute, LSU AgCenter, St. Gabriel, LA, USA
2
Sugar Research Station, LSU AgCenter, St. Gabriel, LA, USA
3
Iberia Research Station, Jeanerette, LA, USA
Keywords Sweet sorghum . Biomass harvesting . Harvest loss . Bioethanol
Introduction Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) has been considered as a possible bioenergy crop for the production of biofuels, primarily ethanol around the world [1–4]. Sweet sorghum’s advantages over other feedstocks include high adaptation to different environments, low agronomic inputs, and drought tolerance, making it suitable for cultivation in marginal lands [2]. At maturity, fermentable sugars (sucrose, glucose, and fructose) in the stalk juice is 10–13/100 g, a similar range to those found in sugarcane stalk juice [5], while the whole plant contains 20–30 g fiber/100 g. Therefore, sweet sorghum is of particular interest in sugarcane-producing regions, where infrastructure and logistics for harvesting, transportation, and processing are already in place. In this context, the sugar is extracted prior to utilizing the fiber. If no cellulosic facilities are in place, the sugars can be used in producing ethanol and the fiber can be burned for electricity. Advantage can also be taken from both sugars and fiber when cellulosic facilities become available. Fermentable sugar yield reported in
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