Composition of sugar cane, energy cane, and sweet sorghum suitable for ethanol production at Louisiana sugar mills.
A challenge facing the biofuel industry is to develop an economically viable and sustainable biorefinery. The existing potential biorefineries in Louisiana, raw sugar mills, operate only 3 months of the year. For year-round operation, they must adopt other feedstocks, besides sugar cane, as supplemental feedstocks. Energy cane and sweet sorghum have different harvest times, but can be processed for bio-ethanol using the same equipment. Juice of energy cane contains 9.8% fermentable sugars and that of sweet sorghum, 11.8%. Chemical composition of sugar cane bagasse was determined to be 42% cellulose, 25% hemicellulose, and 20% lignin, and that of energy cane was 43% cellulose, 24% hemicellulose, and 22% lignin. Sweet sorghum was 45% cellulose, 27% hemicellulose, and 21% lignin. Theoretical ethanol yields would be 3,609 kg per ha from sugar cane, 12,938 kg per ha from energy cane, and 5,804 kg per ha from sweet sorghum.
Kim
Misook
M
Audubon Sugar Institute, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, St. Gabriel, LA 70776, USA. MKim@agcenter.lsu.edu
Day
Donal F
DF
D056804:Biofuels; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism; D002482:Cellulose / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D000431:Ethanol / Q000378:metabolism*; D005285:Fermentation; D005525:Food-Processing Industry; D008031:Lignin / Q000032:analysis; D008145:Louisiana; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000032:analysis; D031786:Saccharum / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D045868:Sorghum / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism
D056804:Biofuels; D011134:Polysaccharides; D000431:Ethanol; C007916:hemicellulose; D002482:Cellulose; D008031:Lignin; C027433:bagasse
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