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Assessment of Sugarcane Billet Harvester on Recovery of Sweet Sorghum Biomass for Ethanol Production

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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.

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Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant No. 2011-69005-30515 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The authors would also like to thank John Deere (Thibodaux, LA) for providing the harvester for these tests and all former and current students and staff at the Audubon Sugar Institute and Sugar Research Station, LSU AgCenter (St. Gabriel, LA), for their assistance during sample collection and analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Audubon Sugar Institute, LSU AgCenter, St. Gabriel, LA, USA

    Daira Aragon, Howard P. Viator & Franz S. Ehrenhauser

  2. Sugar Research Station, LSU AgCenter, St. Gabriel, LA, USA

    Howard P. Viator

  3. Iberia Research Station, Jeanerette, LA, USA

    Howard P. Viator

Authors
  1. Daira Aragon
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  2. Howard P. Viator
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  3. Franz S. Ehrenhauser
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Correspondence to Daira Aragon.

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The datasets are generated during and/or analyzed during the current study available from the corresponding author at reasonable request.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Aragon, D., Viator, H.P. & Ehrenhauser, F.S. Assessment of Sugarcane Billet Harvester on Recovery of Sweet Sorghum Biomass for Ethanol Production. Bioenerg. Res. 10, 783–791 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-017-9839-2

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