Sweet Sorghum

Sorghum Bagasse in recent years has emerged as a promising feedstock for production of biofuels and value-added products following various biological conversion pathways. However, adequate conservation is critical for utilising Sorghum Bagasse as a feedstock for fuel production around the year in bioenergy plants. Therefore, this study aims to examine the pressure drop as a function of airflow velocity and construct Shedd's curves for energy Sorghum Bagasse. The ambition was to facilitate large-scale drying systems for biomass conservation. The Bagasse was prepared by extracting the juice from the harvested sorghum and passing through a juicing machine. Afterwards, it was manually chopped and stored on a wooden platform having 2.44 m2 area in a 55-gallon drum at a depth of 0.57 m. The airflow velocities (0.24–1.32 ms−1) caused a pressure drop (9.96–346.23 Pa) across the empty drum. The different pressure drop in the drum containing Sorghum Bagasse (19.92–263.25 Pa) was due to various airflow velocities (0.043–0.799 ms−1). Pressure drop was further increased with increasing airflow velocity, and it was found in line with the values of pressure drop for ear and shelled corn, as reported in ASABE standards. Shedd's curves for Sorghum Bagasse samples were developed, as these curves can be used for designing large-scale aeration systems for chopped energy sorghum. The whole production chain of biofuel by conserving biomass can be improved by the findings of this work, thus allowing the biomass to be used more economically around the year in bioenergy plants.

The utilization of sorghum as food products is restricted b y its lack of digestib ility and the presence of anti-nutrients factors. Fermentation process has b een recommended to improve cereal-based flour quality. This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of two fermentation methods namely solid state (a method adopting tempeh processing procedure with fermentation course of 60 and 72 h) and sub merged fermentation (similar to ampok processing procedure with fermentation course of 72 and 84 h). The fermented-sorghum grains were then dried, and milled to produce sorghum flour. Analyses of proximate, physical poperties (particle size index/PSI, Water Ab sorption Index/WAI, swelling power) and amylograph profiles were carried out to ob tain the flour characteristi cs. The results showed that b oth fermentation methods significantly influenced the proximate, physical and amilograph properties of the sorghum flour. Solid state fermentation of sorghum grains decreased the starch content, reduced its lightness, swelling power and viscosity, while increased the PSI and WAI. However, the solid state fermentation did not significantly change the protein, fat, ash and moisture content of the sorghum flour. Sub merged fermentation of sorghum grain decreased the starch and protein content, increased the lightness, swelling power and viscosity, while did not significantly modify fat, ash and moisture content of the flour. Based on the characteristics ob tained, it is suggested that sorghum flour made from solid state fermented-sorghum grain may b e applicab le for making–not viscous-food products, such as porridge. On the other side, the sorghum flour made from sub merged-fermented-sorghum grain may b e used as thickening agent, b inder or for making highly viscous food products. ABSTRAK 1 Pemanfaatan sorgum sebagai bahan pangan dibatasi oleh rendahnya daya cerna dan juga keberadaan anti nutrisi. Fermentasi sereal telah dilaporkan dapat meningkatkan kualitas tepung sorgum. Penelitian ini bertujuan mengetahui karakteristik tepung sorgum yang dihasilkan dari biji yang difermentasi menggunakan dua metode yaitu substrat padat (mengikuti prosedur pembuatan tempe dengan lama fermentasi 60 dan 72 jam) dan substrat terendam (mengikuti prosedur pembuatan ampok dengan lama fermentasi 72 dan 84 jam). Biji sorgum terfermentasi kemudian dikeringkan dan digiling untuk meng-hasilkan tepung sorgum. Analisis proksimat, sifat fisik (indeks ukuran partikel, indeks penyerapan air, swelling, dan viskositas menggunakan Brab ender Amilograph) dilakukan untuk karakterisasi tepung sorgum yang dihasilkan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kedua metode fermentasi mempengaruhi proksimat, sifat fisik dan amilografi tepung sorgum yang dihasilkan. Fermentasi biji sorgum metode substrat padat menurunkan kandungan pati, kecerahan warna tepung, swelling power dan viskositas, meningkatkan PSI dan WAI, namun tidak mengubah kandungan protein, lemak, abu dan air. Fermentasi biji sorgum metode submerged menurunkan kadar pati dan protein, meningkatkan kecerah an, swelling power dan viskositas, namun tidak mempengaruhi kadar lemak dan abu tepung sorgum. Berdasarkan sifat tersebut, tepung sorgum hasil fermentasi substrat padat mungkin sesuai diaplikasikan untuk produk dengan sifat " cair " , sedangkan tepung sorgum hasil fermentasi substrat terendam mungkin sesuai untuk bahan pengental atau bahan pengisi dan produk dengan viskositas tinggi. Kata kunci: fermentasi, karakteristik tepung sorgum, substrat padat (tempe), substrat terendam (ampok)

Sorghum Bagasse in recent years has emerged as a promising feedstock for production of biofuel and value-added products following various biological conversion pathways. However, adequate conservation is critical for utilizing sorghum bagasse as raw material for fuel and fiber around the year in biofuels plants. The biomass conservation using drying method depends on different parameters such as energy efficiency, heat integration, emission control and dryer performance. The pressure drop phenomenon in drying systems for biomass conservation has been reported in few studies only. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the pressure drop as a function of airflow velocity and construct Shedd’s curves for energy sorghum bagasse with an ambition to develop large-scale drying systems for biomass conservation. The bagasse was obtained by extracting the juice from the harvested sorghum and passing it through a juicing machine. The bagasse was manually chopped and stored on a wooden platform having 2.44 m2 area in a 55-gallon drum at a depth of 0.57 m. A fan equipped with a regulator to control variable speed was attached to the plenum, having the ability to generate airflow up to 2.15 ms-1. The airflow velocities (0.24 to 1.32 ms-1) caused pressure drop (9.96 to 346.23 Pa) across the empty drum. Similarly, the pressure drop in the drum containing sorghum bagasse ranged from 19.92 to 263.25 Pa due to airflow velocities ranging from 0.043 to 0.799 ms-1, respectively. Pressure drop increased with increasing airflow velocity, and was similar to the pressure drop values for ear and shelled corn, reported in ASABE standards. Shedd’s curves for sorghum bagasse samples were developed; these curves could be used for designing large-scale aeration systems for chopped energy sorghum.