Evaluation of degradation of fermentable sugars during syrup storage

Energy crops are currently being investigated as alternative resources for the production of biofuels and bio-based chemicals. Both energy cane and sweet sorghum are of interest in the southeastern United States because of their similarity to sugar cane. These crops can be harvested like sugar cane and processed in current facilities of the raw sugar industry. In Louisiana, the harvesting season for sweet sorghum ranges from late July until October and for energy cane from November until early January. In order to couple seasonal syrup production with a year-round biorefinery, a viable storage method with the minimum amount of fermentable sugar loss must be achieved for a minimum of 6 months.

The fundamental property of an ideal storage method relies on the stable preservation of fermentable sugar concentration under perturbed storage conditions. Most degradation occurs to due microbial growth, thus the growth must be eliminated or hindered in order for long term storage to be viable. Presented will be preliminary data on factorial experimentation of possible treatments for perturbed syrup. This work also evaluates syrup storage in a column which simulates tank storage conditions to answer whether a storage method requires bulk or surface treatment, or both. A final evaluation of treated vs. untreated syrup for at least 5 months will be presented to conclude the preliminary results.