Bio-Ethanol Production from Sweet Sorghum Straw by Dry Milling Process

Due to rapid growth in population and industrialization, worldwide ethanol demand is increasing continuously. Conventional crops such as corn and sugarcane are unable to meet the global demand of bioethanol production due to their primary value of food and feed. Therefore, lignocellulosic substances such as agricultural wastes of crops like sweet sorghum straw are attractive feed stocks for bioethanol production. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is one of the main course cereal crops of India. India is second largest producer of sorghum in the world with production of about 10–11 million ton from total area of 12 million ha. Sorghum is one of the few cereals, which can be grown in semi-arid regions. Sweet sorghum wastes are cost effective, renewable and abundant. Developments such as dry fractionation technology, now commercially viable, may alter the structure of the industry by giving the cheaper dry-grind method an edge over wet milling. Proper pretreatment methods can increase concentrations of fermentable sugars after enzymatic saccharification, thereby improving the efficiency of the whole process. Conversion of glucose as well as xylose to ethanol needs some effective fermentation technologies, to make the whole process cost effective. So this study was performed on sorghum straw as a resource for production of bioethanol.