The effect of fermentation configurations and FAN supplementation on ethanol production from sorghum grains under very-high-gravity conditions

✍ Scribed by Jen-Wei Chang; Yen-Han Lin; Li-Yen Huang; Kow-Jen Duan

• Publisher: Elsevier
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 251 KB
• Volume: 42
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1876-1070
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jtice.2010.05.001

✦ Synopsis

The depletion of global fossil fuel deposits will soon become a reality (Holtberg and Hirsch, 2003). It is imperative to search any alternative energy that can reduce the depletion rate. Biofuel is a promising alternative to partially substitute petroleum-derived fuel, and more importantly to reduce CO 2 emission, which is regarded as one of the greenhouse gases causing global warming. To lower the production cost of bioethanol, use of locally grown agricultural crops is an imperative choice.

Grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is cultivated in the area along the west coastline of Taiwan. Sorghum is a starch rich grain which is used mainly to brew the famous Kaoliang liquor. Sorghum is drought tolerant, withstands the salt spray during the strong seasonal winds coming from northeastern mainland China in the winter. It is a potential energy crop and does not compete for arable land. Many articles reported fuel ethanol was made by various species of sorghum and different fermentation technologies (