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Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter Publication Acceptance Date: 1/6/2020 Publication Date: 7/17/2020 Citation: Stoklosa, R.J. 2020. Deriving biofuels and value-added co-products from sorghum bicolor: prospects in biorefinery applications and product development. Book Chapter. ACS Symposium Series 1347(3):43-62. https://doi.org/10.1021/bk-2020-1347. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/bk-2020-1347 Interpretive Summary: Technical Abstract: A proposed shift away from petroleum resources to offset carbon emissions and mitigate other environmental concerns has generated interest in developing sustainable bioeconomy practices based on agricultural feedstock conversion. To achieve this goal integrated cellulosic biorefineries, which are similar to current corn ethanol production facilities, can be developed that fractionate different anatomical plant features for specific downstream conversion processes. Currently, farmers in the United States have increased their planting and harvesting of Sorghum bicolor to take advantage of its unique characteristics. Most notably cultivars of sorghum exhibit drought tolerance and high-water use efficiency that allow the crop to be planted over a wide geographic range. Moreover, various sorghum cultivars can be implemented into biorefining processes that increase value for chemical production. Different sorghum cultivars, such as grain sorghum or sweet sorghum, require different processing adaptations to maximize product output value. The fractionation of sorghum cultivars into distinct anatomical components such as starch and oil from sorghum grain, non-structural sugars from sweet sorghum juice, or structural carbohydrates from lignocellulosic stalks will allow for wide ranging processing applications. This chapter will focus on the potential of sorghum feedstocks for conversion to biofuels, high value chemicals, or renewable materials. |
