BioMatNet Item: FAIR-CT95-0069 - Innovative Harvesting and Sugar-Juice Separating Machine for Sweet Sorghum and Fibre Sorghum

FAIR-CT95-0069
Innovative Harvesting and Sugar-Juice Separating Machine for Sweet Sorghum and Fibre Sorghum

To find similar Items, click on a keyword below:
Crops for Liquid Biofuels and Biogas : Crops for Solid Biofuels : Electricity : FAIR Area 1.1 - Biomass and Bioenergy Chain : Fibre : Liquid Biofuels and Biogas : Separation/Fractionation : Solid Biofuels : Sugar

	Type of Project	Shared Cost
	Contract No	FAIR-CT95-0069
	Total Cost	1,550,000 ECU
	EC Contribution	800,000 ECU
	Start Date	01/12/1995
	Duration	24 months

Innovative harvesting and sugar-juice separating machine for sweet-sorghum and fibre-sorghum

Objectives

Technical Approach

The sweet-sorghum crop is composed of sugar, lignocellulose and some starch (grains). One critical step for the exploitation of sweet sorghum as a source of bioethanol for energy is clearly a low-cost, fast and efficient separation of the sugar-juice from lignocellulosic bagasse. The separation near the site of plantations is needed to simplify and reduce the cost of transportation and logistic infrastructure. Local concentration of sugar-juice (before or after fermentation) could also be considered to reduce the cost further.

Expected Results

The prototype of the harvesting machine is still testing and the expected results are:

the development of a reliable, simple to operate, medium size machine
the reduction of the cost (about 50%) for the harvesting and of the sugar extraction process
the manufacture of the machine at an acceptably low cost in line with the overall economics of the use of sweet-sorghum for energy
to facilitate the further processing of the separated sugar-juice in terms of concentration, fermentation and storage

Innovative harvesting and sugar-juice separating machine
for sweet sorghum and fibre sorghum

Contacts

Coordinator

Dr Lino PASQUALI / Pasquali Macchine Agricole SRL ITALY

Participant