Harvesters are one of the keys to the success of sweet sorghum ethanol.

There are several reasons for the lack of success stories for sweet sorghum ethanol, one of which is the lack of specialized harvesters. Therefore, the harvester is one of the keys to the success of sweet sorghum ethanol

Traditional sorghum harvesters are primarily used to harvest sorghum ears, not sorghum stalks. In traditional sorghum cultivation, sorghum stalks have low economic value and are often treated as waste. Therefore, sorghum stalks are usually crushed and returned directly to the field as fertilizer.

However, sweet sorghum is completely different from traditional sorghum. Like sugar cane, sweet sorghum is a straight-stemmed plant whose stalk is rich in sugar. Therefore, specialized harvesters are required to harvest its ears and stem separately. The harvested ears of sweet sorghum can be used as food, feed, or industrial raw materials, while the straw is transported to factories to extract sugar juice, which can be used as a raw material for liquid biofuels.

A sweet sorghum harvesting system may include the following;

1. Harvesting: The dedicated sweet sorghum harvester should be able to accurately harvest sweet sorghum ears and stalks, and can separately retain the ears and the whole stalk.

2. Collection: After harvesting, sweet sorghum ears and stalks will be collected separately. The ear part can be used for processing and utilization of grain, feed, or industrial raw materials, while the straw is further extracted from the sugar juice.

3. Transportation: The collected sweet sorghum ears and stalks need to be sorted and transported to ensure that they are correctly sent to the corresponding processing links. This may include steps such as loading, transporting, and unloading.

4. Separate processing: Sweet sorghum ears and straw are processed separately in the factory or processing facility. The ear part may undergo grinding or other processing steps to obtain the desired product, such as food or feed. Straw is used to extracting sugar juice to obtain edible syrup or industrial fermentation syrup, and straw residue will be processed into pellets or biochar.

Therefore, sweet sorghum harvesting is a relatively complex system, which requires sorting, harvesting, collection, transportation, and processing of ears and stalks. Sweet sorghum harvesting systems need to ensure that all parts of sweet sorghum are fully and efficiently utilized.

Return home