Development of long-item storage systems for sweet sorghum stalks
2016
Ocreto, M.B.
Sweet sorghum is rich in sugar and in biomass which makes it suitable as substrate for bioethanol production. However, the problem is the seasonal availability of crop and short storage duration of stalk due to high sugar content at high moisture content upon harvest. This study aimed to develop a system to maintain quality of sweet sorghum. According to GAB model, the moisture content at which the microbial activity for the dried stalk becomes limited was 0.24 gram moisture per gram dry mass or lower at 0.70 water activity. Page model was used for drying curve with 7.99 hours shortest drying time for chip samples. After 16 weeks of storage, in ambient conditions maximum sugar retention was of dried stalk in hermetic bag at 0.50 gram total sugar per gram dry mass, while in freezer maximum sugar content of dried sample in sacks at 0.52 gram total sugar per gram dry mass, both 10-cm cut stalks. Maximum ethanol concentration was recovered from fresh 10-cm samples with cellulase at 221.92 ml per kg dry mass while ethanol recovery from dried 10-cm cut stalk was 168.24 ml per kg dry mass. Dried sweet sorghum stalks could be stored effectively for 16 weeks regardless of packaging materials and storage conditions. Four months of successful storage systems is necessary to provide the amount of raw materials during off-season. Employing dried and fresh stalk samples for fermentation was possible which further improved by agitated sugar extraction and cellulose addition.
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