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Leaf and Panicle Separator for Sweet Sorghum

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Abstract

High-biomass sweet sorghum is considered a promising energy crop suitable for the production of energy, first- and second-generation biofuels and biobased chemicals. Processing in a typical sugar cane mill or dedicated sorghum mill is challenged by the presence of trash (leaves and panicles). The separation of leaves and panicles could generate additional value streams, and the reduction of trash is considered beneficial for juice extraction and juice quality. A two-stage trash removal system for the separation of leaves, and panicles was designed and tested. The pneumatic leaf separation stage allowed the removal of up to 56% of leaves in a single pass and the second stage, a novel rotating-disk separator, demonstrated the feasibility of the panicle separation. The basic design parameters were optimized for both systems, and the impact of trash removal tested on Ceres® Inc. “Durasweet” sorghum in 2015 and 2016. Trash removal from the feedstock allowed practically identical recovery (97.3–99.9%) of soluble solids, while up to 19.1% less feedstock with significantly less fiber (82.6% of original feedstock) was processed.

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Abbreviations

x :

Horizontal distance of the splitter from the air knife (m)

y :

Vertical distance of the air knife from the end of the feeding conveyor (m)

β :

Horizontal angle of the air stream (°)

θ :

Horizontal angle of the panicles separator (°)

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Audubon Sugar Institute staff in particular Lamar Aillet, Grant Odenwald and Jonathan Bonin for their help with this project. This project was supported by Sorghum Checkoff Program grant USCP RN004-15. Edgar Tobias acknowledges USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture—Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grant no. 2011-69005-30515 for providing additional funding for his assistantship.

Author Contributions

FE, DA, CG and ET are responsible for the design of the separator and the experimental design. ET and CG constructed the separator and conducted the experiments. FE and ET evaluated the data and wrote the manuscript. DA, FE and HV edited the manuscript. HV provided the sweet sorghum crop.

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Author notes

  1. Cy Gaudet

    Present address: Amalgamated Research LLC, Twin Falls, ID, 83301, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Audubon Sugar Institute, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, 3845 Hwy 75, St. Gabriel, LA, 70776, USA

    Edgar Tobias, Cy Gaudet, Daira Aragon & Franz Ehrenhauser

  2. Sugar Research Station, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, St. Gabriel, LA, 70776, USA

    Howard Viator

Authors
  1. Edgar Tobias
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  2. Cy Gaudet
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  3. Howard Viator
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  4. Daira Aragon
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  5. Franz Ehrenhauser
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Franz Ehrenhauser.

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Conflict of interest

Mr. Tobias, Mr. Gaudet, Dr. Viator, Dr. Aragon and Dr. Ehrenhauser report grants from USDA NIFA and from US Sorghum Checkoff Program during the conduct of the study.

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Tobias, E., Gaudet, C., Viator, H. et al. Leaf and Panicle Separator for Sweet Sorghum. Sugar Tech 20, 252–260 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12355-017-0583-x

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