'Sorganol': Production of Ethanol from Sweet Sorghum

摘要

It is inevitable that ethanol production in the United States will continue to increase. Sweet sorghum has the potential to be used as a renewable energy crop, and has become a viable candidate for ethanol production. The idea to use sweet sorghum forcommercial ethanol production is not new. But previous barriers to commercialization of this process have been the high capital costs involved in ensilage and fermentation at a central processing plant that may be operated only seasonally. In order todiminish the high capital investment necessary in a central processing facility, the proposed process involves in-field production of ethanol from sweet sorghum. The process includes a newly designed field harvester capable of pressing and collecting the juice, large storage bladders for fermentation, and a mobile distillation unit for ethanol concentration. In order to achieve in-field ethanol fermentation in large bladders, one of the remaining questions is whether fermentation can take place in theenvironment with no process control. The focus of the current research was to evaluate the effects of yeast type, pH adjustment, and nutrient addition on fermentation process efficiency.