Models for sweet sorghum feedstock management for ethanol

Technological change, competition and globalization are leading to a restructuring of agri-business research and development processes and strategies across the world. Technology transfer is not simply copying technologies passively from others, but an active and creative process of adaptation that recognizes indigenous capabilities. The establishment of small-scale industries in rural areas will help in reducing poverty and unemployment. At the same time, it is an efficient way of preventing migration from the rural areas to urban by creating new employment opportunities in the villages. The majority of rural populations in developing countries and least developed countries are lacking agro based small-scale enterprises that give judicious income to farmers through value addition to their agri-produce. What is needed is a fresh and comprehensive approach, integrating crop production enhancement and value addition of the produce through village-based agroindustries, involving farmers as stakeholders in processing their own produce

Sweet Sorghum: A Smart Crop to Meet the Demands of Food, Fodder, Fuel and Feed

At present, energy demand for transport in India is primarily met through non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuels. Being short in domestic production, India mainly depends on crude oil imports. In the near future oil imports are slated to rise further with no major breakthrough in domestic oil production. A compounding factor is the rise in the number of vehicles on the road, which has grown by 10 % each year between 2001 and 2006, and is expected to rise further. Against this backdrop, there is a renewed interest in energy augmentation through biofuel crops to meet the energy demand in the country. One such promising biofuel crop is sweet sorghum, whose sugar-rich stocks can be crushed to produce juice, then fermented into bio-ethanol, and used to make a blended fuel replacing conventional gasoline (Reddy et al. 2005). Sweet sorghum is a C4 plant with high photosynthetic efficiency. It produces a high biomass (up to 40-50 t ha-1) in a short time (4 months) under rain-fed conditions (Reddy, et al., 2005). One advantage of sweet sorghum compared to other crops is that using sweet sorghum for fuel does not reduce its contribution as food because the grain can be harvested for food, and the bagasse (the fiber left over after extraction of juice from sweet sorghum) that remains after the extraction of juice used for biofuel may be used for fodder (Nalini Kumari et al. 2011). Hence, sweet sorghum is a “smart” crop, which meets the triple requirements of food, fuel and fodde

Sweet Sorghum Stalk Supply Chain Management: Decentralized Crushing Cum-Syrup Making Unit Information Bulletin no. 90

In the climate of environmental concerns associated with fossil fuel use and the increased demand for energy in different counties, biofuel research and development has come to center stage. Sweet sorghum is a SMART crop with triple product benefits - food, feed and fuel. It is a good candidate for commercial ethanol production with potential opportunities for benefiting the poor dryland farmers through the emerging biofuel markets. Commercial ethanol production from sweet sorghum requires feedstock supplies for the long period of a year. ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics) with Rusni distillery Pvt. Ltd. and other partners are working on supply chain management and addressing other issues in the sweet sorghum ethanol value chain. Principally, the sweet sorghum supply chain involves centralized and decentralized models. Under the centralized model, farmers supply the sweet sorghum stalks directly to the distillery, whereas in the decentralized model, farmers supply stalks to the Decentralized Crushing-Syrup Making Unit (DCU) located within the village where the crop is grown. The stalks are crushed at the DCU and the sweet juice is boiled to produce concentrated syrup that can be stored for more than 2 years at room temperature, and which is used for ethanol production, particularly in the off-season. This serves to augment the feedstock supply to the distillery. Use of the DCU for crushing and syrup production at the village level is a new idea and there is as yet no publication available on the requirements for establishment of a DCU and its management. In this bulletin, an attempt is made to briefly describe the experiences of ICRISAT and partners in the establishment and maintenance of a DCU, covering all the aspects from selection of site for its establishment, logistical requirements, plant and machinery, operation and management, economics of crushing sweet sorghum and its role in sweet sorghum supply chain managemen

Establishment and maintenance of decentralized sweet sorghum crushing-cumsyrup making unit.

In the light of environmental concerns associated with fossil fuel use and the increased demand for energy in different counties, bio-fuels research and development has come to center stage. Sweet sorghum is a SMART crop with triple product benefit - food, feed and fuel. It is a good candidate for commercial ethanol production with potential opportunities for benefiting the dryland farmers from the emerging bio-fuel markets. The commercial ethanol production from sweet sorghum requires feedstock supplies for longer periods in a year. ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Crops) and DSR (Directorate of Sorghum Research, Rajendranagar, AP, India) and other partners are working on supply chain management and addressing other issues in the sweet sorghum ethanol value chain. Principally, sweet sorghum supply chain involves centralized and decentralized models. Under centralized model farmers supply the sweet sorghum stalks directly to the distillery where as in decentralized model farmers supply stalks to Decentralized Crushing-Syrup Making Unit (DCU) located in the village it self. These stalks are crushed at the DCU and the sweet juice is boiled to produce concentrated syrup that can be stored for more than 9 months and used for ethanol production, particularly in the off-season augmenting the feedstock supply to the distillery. Use of DCU for crushing and syrup production at village is a new idea and there is no publication available on the requirements for establishment of a DCU and its maintenance. In this bulletin, attempts have been made to briefly describe the experiences of ICRISAT and partners in establishment and maintenance of DCU covering all the aspects of DCU, from selection of site for its establishment, logistical requirements, plant and machinery, operation and maintenance of DCU and its role in sweet sorghum supply chain management

Sweet sorghum: A Smart crop to meet the demands for food, fodder, fuel and feed

Sweet sorghum is a C4 plant with high photosynthetic efficiency producing high biomass with sugary stalks in a short time (4 months) under rain-fed conditions..