Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of highly digestible variety of grain sorghum for ethanol production
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The simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of corn and different varieties of grain sorghum (i.e. high digestible and low digestible) were carried out using commercially available alpha amylase and glucoamylase enzymes and Saccharomyces cerevisiea yeast. The hydrolysis and fermentation conditions, such as enzyme, yeast and substrate concentrations, pH and temperature in all the runs were similar so that the ethanol yield will just be dependent on the starch digestibility. Among the three substrates, the highest ethanol concentration was obtained from the highly digestible sorghum. The study revealed that the high yielding sorghum cultivars with modified endosperm matrices can be used as an alternative for corn and can be optimized as a substrate for low energy input ethanol production. Since the food consumption demand for sorghum is lower compared to corn, the new variety of highly digestible grain sorghum has a great potential for ethanol fermentation, especially in semi-arid region. Savings in energy and time in this process could be accomplished via saccharification at lower temperature (32C) concurrent with the fermentation process. The fermentation system needs to be optimized to ensure that there is no shortage of reducing sugars during the entire fermentation process.
