Communications to the Editor

Continuous Conversion of Sweet Sorghum

Juice to Ethanol Using Immobilized Yeast Cells

Ujwala Mohite and Hephzibah SivaRaman

Biochemistry Division, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune 4 11008, India
Accepted for Publication January 18, 1983

INTRODUCTION sorb 101. Both values were in agreement. Total reducing

sugars were analyzed after inversion with HCI by the dini-
Sugar stalk crops such as sugarcane and sweet sorghum
trosalicylic acid method.4
exhibit the C4 photosynthetic pathway and are particu-
larly valuable as sources for the production of fuel grade
Immobilization Procedure
'
ethanol. Sweet sorghum has an added advantage that it
grows in dry climates and utilizes agricultural land not Cells were immobilized in open pore gelatin beads using
suitable for most other crops; for this reason, it is consid- the procedure of SivaRaman et and packed in a water-
ered one of the most economical carbohydrate sources. I jacketed column of the type described by Krouwel and co-
While extensive work has been reported on sugarcane workers5 (top of 4.5 cm i.d., bottom of 3 cm i.d., and
and sugarcane molasses for ethanol production, relatively height of 11S cm). The void volume (total reactor volume
few reports are available on ethanol production from sweet minus solid bead volume) was ca. 25% of the working
sorghum juice. With the advent of immobilized cell tech- reactor volume.
nology, an attempt has been made to utilize this tech-
nology for the production of ethanol from sweet sorghum
juice.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Sweet sorghum juice was supplied by the Nimbkar Agri-
cultural Research Institute (Phaltan, Maharashtra). The
species was Sorghum bicolor (Moench).
After the grain had ripened and was harvested, the
stalks were passed through a crusher. The sugar content of
the juice varied from 11 to 15% (w/v), dependent on the
batch of sweet sorghum, all of which was fermentable with
Saccharomyces uvarum. The sugars present were sucrose
(6O%), glucose (33%), and fructose (7%). The juice was
autoclaved at 15 psi for 20 min, cooled, and filtered, and
the clear light brown liquid was used in the fermentation
studies. The pH of the juice was 4.5.

Microorganism
Saccharomyces uvarum (ATCC 26602) was obtained
from the National Collection of Industrial Microorganisms
(Pune, India) and was grown as described earlier.2
ml / h
Analytical Methods FLOW RATE

Ethanol was analyzed chemically as described by Reid Figure 1. Effect of flow rate on productivity of immobilked yeast cells
and Truelove3 and by gas chromatography using Chromo- using sweet sorghum juice with 11.5% fermentable sugars.

Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. XXVI, Pp. 1126-1 127 (1984)

0 1984 John Wiley &Sons, Inc. CCC 0006-35921841091126-02$04.00
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The relationship of ethanol productivity as a function of
flow rates through the packed-bed reactor can be seen in
Figure 1. The maximum productivity obtained at 30°C
with S. uvarum cells immobilized in gelatin was 168 g/L h
at an ethanol concentration of 2.4 g (w/v) using sweet sor-
ghum juice having 11.5% fermentable sugars. The calcu-
lated value for full conversion was 86 g/L h at an ethanol
concentration of 5.5 g (w/v).
The low concentration of total sugars in the juice, how-
ever, would make ethanol recovery expensive unless a uni-
formly high concentration of 16% or more of total sugars
can be obtained.
The authors wish to thank Dr. C. SivaRaman, Head of the Biochem-
istry Division, for his valuable guidance. The authors also wish to thank
Mr. S. M. Kotwal for technical assistance. The work has received sup-
port under the United Nations Development Programme project of the
Government of India, No. IND/80/003.
References
1. E. S. Lipinsky, Science, 199, 644 (1978).
2. H. SivaRaman, B. SeetaRamaRao, A. V. Pundle, and C. SivaRa-
man, Biotechnology Lett., 4,359 (1982).
3. V. W. Reid and R. K. Truelove, Anulyst, 77,325 (1952).
4. E. H. Fisher and E. A. Stein, Biochem. Prep., 8, 27 (1961).
5. P. G. Krouwel, W. F. M. vander Laan, and N. W. F. Kossen,
Biotechnol. Lett., 2, 253 (1980).
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