Sustainability of Sugar and Sugar-Ethanol Industries
ACS Thematic Programming One-Day Symposium
Sugarcane, sugar beet and sweet sorghum
International and national guest speakers
Symposium book
The
239th American Chemistry Society -ACS
Spring
2010 National Meeting
CARB
Division
Monday,
March 22, 2010
Sponsors:
ACS Carbohydrate Chemistry Division
ACS Sustainability Theme Committee
American Sugar Cane League
V-Labs, Inc.
Dr. Gillian Eggleston
USDA-ARS-SRRC
www.acs.org
TECHNICAL
PROGRAM
Sustainability of the Sugar and Sugar-Ethanol Industries
Sugar and Sugar- Ethanol
Industries I (Monday AM)
Sugar and Sugar- Ethanol
Industries II (Monday PM)
I. Sustainability of the
Sugar and Sugar-Ethanol Industries - Session I
(ACS - CARB Division) Monday AM
Gillian Eggleston,
USDA-ARS-SRRC,
8:30AM Introductory
Remarks. Dr. Gillian Eggleston,
USDA-ARS-SRRC,
8:35AM Major
Challenges and Changes in the European Sugar Sector. Geoff Parkin and Jan Maarten de Bruijn, British Sugar
plc,
9:10AM Sustainability of the Sugar and Sugar-Ethanol Industries: The South African and Southern African Regions. Barbara Muir1, Paul Schorn2, Charles Kruger3, Martin Eweg4, Ruth Rhodes4 and Stephen Peacock2. 1Sugar Milling Research Institute, Durban, South Africa, 2Tongaat-Hulett Ltd, Glenashley, South Africa, 3Illovo Sugar Ltd, Sezela, South Africa, 4South African Sugarcane Research Institute, Mount Edgecombe, South Africa.
9:45AM Technical
Developments in Ethanol Production from Energy
Crops. Giovanna Aita and Deepti Salvi, Audubon Sugar Institute,
10:05AM Cultural
Practices for the Sustainable Production of Sugarcane for Sugar and Bioenergy. Ryan Viator,
USDA-ARS-SRU,
10:25AM BREAK
10:40AM “Cracking the Nut” - Integration of Enzyme and Microbial Systems in the Depolymerization and Utilization of Lignocelulose for Sustainable Production of Ethanol and Co-Products. Sharon Shoemaker, California Institute of Food and Agricultural Research and UC Davis Energy Institute, University of California, Davis, California, USA.
11:05AM The Success and Sustainability of the Brazilian Sugarcane-Fuel Ethanol Industry. Henrique Amorim1 and Jose Borges Gryschek2, 1Fermentec Ltda, Piracicaba, São Paulo State, Brasil, 2Brasmetano, Piracicaba, São Paulo State, Brasil.
11:35AM Analysis of Mannitol
as a Deterioration Marker in Sugarcane and Sugar Beet Factories. Gillian Eggleston, Jessica Gober and Clay Alexander. USDA-ARS-SRRC,
12:00-2:00PM LUNCH
II. Sustainability of the Sugar and Sugar-Ethanol Industries
- Session II
(ACS - CARB Division)
Monday PM
Gillian Eggleston, USDA-ARS-SRRC,
2:00PM
Sweet Sorghum Hybrids and
Industrial Processing of Sweet Sorghum Into Ethanol. Walter Nelson, Ceres Inc.,
2:20PM
Opportunities and Challenges
of Sweet Sorghum as a Feedstock for Biofuel. Sarah Lingle,
USDA-ARS-SRRC,
2:40PM
Liquid Sugars Produced in Sugar Refineries: Advantage of Large
Central Units Serving the Competive and Sustainable
Needs of the Food Industry. Francois Rousset, Novasep
Process,
3:00PM
Value-Added Products for a
Sustainable Sugar Industry. Mary An
Godshall, Sugar Processing Research Institute, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana,
USA
3:20PM BREAK
3:35
PM Sugar Beet Pulp: A
Sustainable Source of Carboxy Methyl Cellulose (CMC)
and Other Polysaccharides. Marshall Fishman, Hoa Chau, Peter Cooke, David
Coffin and Arland Hotchkiss. USDA-ARS-ERRC,
3:55PM Approaches to Raw Sugar Quality Improvement as a Route to Sustaining a Reliable Supply of Purified Industrial Sugar Feedstocks.
4:15PM Sustainability of Low Starch Concentrations in Sugarcane Through Short-Term Optimized Amylase Processing and Long-Term Breeding Strategies. Collins Kimbeng1, Marvellous Zhou1, Serge Edme2, Anna Hale3 and Gillian Eggleston4. 1School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA, 2Sugarcane Field Station, Canal Point, Florida, 3USDA-ARS-SRU, Houma, Louisiana, USA, 4USDA-ARS-SRRC, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
4:35PM
Development in Sugarcane
Agriculture That Affect Cane and Sugar Quality. Benjamin Legendre, Audubon
Sugar Institute,
4:55PM ADJOURN
ABSTRACTS
Major Challenges and Changes in the
European Sugar Sector,
G. Parkin and J.M. de Bruijn, British Sugar plc,
Over the last five years, a number of changes have taken
place within the European Sugar Sector mostly driven by the reform of the
European Sugar Regime. This Regime had
been in place since 1968 and was designed to “maintain employment and standards
of living for EU growers of beet sugar” by making the continent
self-sufficient in sugar production.
This presentation highlights the changes that have taken place to the
Regime and how the Sugar Industry within
Sustainability in the Sugar and
Sugar-Ethanol Industries: The South African and Southern African Regions, B.M. Muir1 ,
P.A. Schorn2, C. Kruger3 , M. Ewig4, R. Rhodes4
and
The South African (SA) sugar industry is well established
with strong infrastructure and support systems.
The 14 sugarcane factories operate in the sub-tropical eastern and
north-eastern regions; two research institutes are dedicated to the
sustainability of the land, the manufacturing industry, and its people. While sugarcane cultivation is slowly on the
decrease, SA sugar companies are rapidly expanding into southern and central
Africa, already regenerating and reinforcing sugar establishments all the way
to Kilombero in Tanzania, just north of the equator.
Margins in the SA industry have declined and co-products
such as ethanol, electricity and chemicals are attracting renewed
attention. An oversupply of ethanol from
oil-refineries and coal-to-fuel operations forced ethanol-from-molasses to maintain
a low profile as potable bio-ethanol that is used mostly in the local beverage
sector. However, the availability of
fertile land, excellent climatic conditions, low cost labor and preferential
international markets in other African countries are rapidly stimulating
investment.
Cultural Practices for the Sustainable
Production of Sugarcane for Sugar and Bio-energy, R. Viator,
P. White and R. M. Johnson, Sugarcane Research Unit, USDA-ARS,
Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.), while traditionally grown for sugar production,
can also be grown as a biomass crop for biofuels
production. Crop management practices
will change depending on if sugarcane is grown for sugar or biofuels
and will be influenced by climatic regions where the crop is grown. For example, artificial ripening may not be
needed if cane is grown strictly for its fiber as an energy source. Degree of cultivation, dates of planting,
date of harvesting, residue management, ratoon
management, and land use allocation may also need to be adjusted depending on
the end-use product. If the entire plant
including extraneous matter is harvested, harvesting logistics, soil fertility,
soil health, soil compaction, and fertilizer application may be influenced. Producing sugarcane in climatic zones where
cane is not traditionally grown for sugar will entail germplasm
screening, water conservation, and crop rotation. Sugarcane cultural practices differ greatly form annual crops, such as corn and soybeans,
because of its perennial crop cycle. For
example sugarcane harvest date affects carbohydrate partitioning to underground
buds. Any stress that affects these buds
has the potential to reduce yields throughout the remaining crop cycle. Yield optimization must always take into
account effects on the subsequent ratoon crops. We will discuss the similarities and
differences in sugarcane and energy cane management and will highlight the need
for managing this crop as a perennial and not as an annual crop.
Technical Developments in Ethanol
Production from Energy Crops, Giovanna M. Aita and Deepti, A. Salvi, Audubon
Sugar Institute, Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, 3845 Hwy 75
St. Gabriel, Louisiana 70776, Tel: 225-642-0135, Fax: 225-642-8790, gaita@agcenter.lsu.edu
The concept of energy crops, a renewable source of
energy, has been around for decades. It
was not until the discovery of fossil fuels, a non-renewable source of energy,
in 1859 that agricultural and forestry crops and their residues stopped being
the primary source of energy. Since
then, fossil fuels have become the major source of energy generation and
transportation fuels supplying 85% of the
“Cracking the Nut”
– Integration of Enzyme and Microbial Systems in the Depolymerization
and Utilization of Lignocellulose for Sustainable
Production of Ethanol and Co-Products, Sharon Shoemaker, California
Institute of Food and Agricultural Research and Associate Director, UC Davis
Energy Institute, University of California, Davis, California 95616, Email:
spshoemaker@ucdavis.edu
This presentation reviews the enabling science that has
advanced our understanding and use of lignocellulose
as a feedstock for industrial production of ethanol and co-products. The
phenotypic observations and experimental results of countless studies in past
40 years can assist in the rational design and interpretation of experiments
using the tools of modern chemical biology, its “omic”
approaches, multivariant analyses, high throughout
screening and bioinformatics. A perspective of the past in the context of today
and tomorrow, toward fully realizing cellulase-cellulose
bioconversion in simultaneous-saccharification
fermentation (SSF) systems is provided.
The presentation is dedicated to the life and memory of Dr. Raphael Katzen.
Sustainability of the Sugar and
Sugar-Ethanol Industries,
Henrique Amorim1 and Jose Marcos Borges Gryschek2 1Fermentec
Ltda-Av Antonia Pazzinato Sturion, 1155
Sustainability is a concept that basically integrates economical,
environmental, and social aspects, that has frequently been applied to human
activities in a changing world. Even for
natural products such as sugar or renewable energy products such as bioethanol from sugar cane, a life cycle analysis can show
how intensive and effective the processes are for their production. For this analysis, it is necessary to
evaluate all the demands and relationships amongst the cycle components, e.g.,
soil occupation; water consumption and conservation; fertilizers, chemicals to
control pests, and other sub-products applied as a fertilizer source, and
residue destination. In the next step of
processing the raw material, many others aspects have to be considered, e.g.,
type and quantity of energy and water consumption, characterization of many
accessory products such as lubricants, antibiotics, detergents, and additives;
liquid, solid, and gaseous emissions and their control and destinations; and
the end-use of these products by consumers.
When considering natural and renewable products, more than a hundred
aspects may be considered if these products are to be environmental friendly,
safe, potential solutions to reducing and controlling global warming, and
sustainable in the market place.
Analysis of Mannitol
as a Deterioration Marker in Sugarcane and Sugar Beet Factories, Gillian Eggleston, Jessica Gober, and Clay Alexander, SRRC-USDA-ARS, 1100 Robert E. Lee
Boulevard New Orleans, LA 70124, USA, Tel: + 1 504 286 4446 Fax: + 1 504 286 4367, E-mail address: gillian.eggleston@ars.usda.gov
Better
control of sugarcane and sugar beet deterioration will contribute to the
sustainability of the sugar industry. Mannitol,
formed mainly by Leuconostoc mesenteroides bacteria, is a sensitive deterioration
marker of both sugarcane and sugarbeet deterioration
that can predict processing problems. An enzymatic factory method that is
rapid, simple, accurate, and inexpensive is now available to measure mannitol in consignment juices at factories, and recently
precision was improved to measure low mannitol
concentrations in juices and other sugar products as well. A strong polynomial
relationship (R2=0.912) existed between mannitol
and haze dextran (a-(1→6)-a-D-glucan) in sugarcane juices obtained across a 3-month
processing season at a sugarcane factory. Mannitol
concentrations are typically higher than concentrations of antibody dextran, which indicates (i) the
usefulness and sensitivity of mannitol to predict
sugarcane deterioration from Leuconostoc and
other bacteria, and (ii) the underestimation by sugar industry personnel of the
relatively large amounts of mannitol present in
deteriorated sugarcane. Greater than ~250 ppm/Brix of
mannitol in sugarcane juice predicts downstream
processing problems, but this threshold value may vary from region to region.
The increasing awareness of how mannitol
detrimentally effects processing, e.g., crystallization, is fully discussed.
Sweet Sorghum Hybrids
and Industrial Processing of Sweet Sorghum into Ethanol, Walter Nelson, Ceres, Inc.,
1535 Rancho Conejo Bovlevard,
Thousand Oaks, CA 91320, Tel: 805-376-6548, Fax: 805-410-0503, Email: wnelson@ceres-inc.com
Genomics-based plant
breeding and biotechnology offer the opportunity to make game-changing
improvements to non-food, low-input energy crops being developed for
next-generation biofuels and biopower. Combined with compositional analyses, this
suite of technologies makes it possible to optimize not only yield-influencing
traits such as plant architecture and flowering time, but also composition and
conversion characteristics for various process technologies. Thus, improved cultivars have the potential
to produce not only more biomass per acre, but more fuel or energy per ton for
multiple downstream uses, including liquid transportation fuels, electricity,
natural gas, and fine chemicals. Among the new crops being considered for
next-generation biofuels, sweet sorghum has
historically not received the same widespread attention as others, despite
numerous advantages. It is a
high-yielding seed-propagated crop that produces large amounts of sugar and
biomass with relatively low inputs.
Opportunities and
Challenges of Sweet Sorghum as a Feedstock for Biofuel, Sarah E. Lingle, USDA-ARS
Southern Regional Research Center, New Orleans, LA 70124. Email: Sarah.Lingle@ars.usda.gov
Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is a grass crop with thick stalks adapted to warm
climates. Sweet sorghum (SS) has a
juicy, sweet stalk. The juice can be
pressed from the stalks, directly fermented or boiled down to make syrup. The plant residue remaining can be burned to
run the mill or cogenerate electricity, or used as
feedstock for cellulosic ethanol. SS has wide environmental adaptation, rapid
growth, high productivity, relative tolerance to marginal growing conditions,
and high concentrations of the easily fermentable sugars glucose, fructose and
sucrose. The sugars in SS start to
deteriorate once the stalk is harvested.
Leaves and leaf sheaths are difficult to remove from the stalk. They are a source of microorganisms, organic
acids and starch. Microorganisms
deteriorate the sugars, organic acids react with the sugars when the juice is
heated, and starch thickens during boiling. Ideas for addressing these
challenges will be discussed.
Liquid Sugars Produced
in Sugar: Advantage of Large Central Units Serving the Competitive Needs of the
Food Industry, Francois Rousset, Novasep
Process, Saint Maurice de Beynost 5,
In the present world
economics, the prices of sugar have managed to remain very reasonable, thanks
to continuous availability from large producers like
•
Raw material available in large quantities at
stable prices
•
Thanks to the proximity of the Sugar Refiner
to the Food Industry, possibility to build large scale efficient central units
of Liquid Sugars
•
Saving energy usage by avoiding the costs of crystallization,
when supplying directly a liquid product ready to use
•
Flexibility from the Sugar Refinery for
supplying endusers with crystalline, or liquid sugar
in most cost-effective conditions
Value-Added Products for a Sustainable
Sugar Industry, Mary
An Godshall, Sugar Processing Research Institute, Inc.,
Sugar production, from both beet and cane, is energy and
water-intensive. In today’s social
and political environment, industries strive to be environmentally sustainable
and “green,” while maintaining profitability. The sugar industry has three avenues for
achieving these goals: improving the over-all efficiency of the process;
expanding its market with a range of innovative edible products; and finally,
entering into the 21st century’s bio-based economy by
developing products to replace petrochemical-derived products. The industry has done well with the first two
of these, but has found barriers to exploiting the latter possibility. This presentation reviews some of the
industry successes with value-added products and the potential for further
development in the area of bio-based products.
Sugar Beet Pulp: A Sustainable Source of
Carboxy Methyl Cellulose (CMC) and Other
Polysaccharides, Marshall
L. Fishman1, Hoa K. Chau1,
Peter H. Cooke 2, David R. Coffin 1 and Arland T.
Hotchkiss Jr.1, 1Eastern Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research
Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Crop Conversion Science &
Engineering Unit, 600 E. Mermaid Lane, Wyndmoor,
Pennsylvania 19038, 2USDA-ARS-ERRC-Microbial Biophysics Unit, Email:
marshaII.fishman@ars.usda.gov, rose.chau@ars.usda.gov, phcooke@nmsu.edu, david.coffin@ars.usda.gov, arland.hotchkiss@ars.usda.gov
It is estimated that the extraction of sugar from sugar
beets in the
Approaches to Raw Sugar Quality
Improvement as a Route to Sustaining a Reliable Supply of Purified Industrial
Sugar Feedstocks, John R. Vercellotti1, Sharon Vercellotti1,
Gavin Kahn2 and Gillian Eggleston3. 1V-Labs,
Inc., 423 N. Theard Street, Covington, Louisiana
70433-2837, USA, Fax: 985-893-0517, 2Carbochem Inc., 326 W.
Lancaster Avenue, Ardmore, Pennsylania 19003-1228,
USA, Fax: 610-645-5501, 3Commodity Utilization Research Unit,
USDA-ARS-SRRC, 1100 Robert E. Lee Blvd., Bldg 001,
Demand for purified sugar is increasing while energy
costs for a sustainable level of this product outstrips manufacturing
technology. Agricultural commodity
delivery of sugar as an adequately refined raw material for manufacturing
value-added goods demands that the highest yields of purified crystalline sugar
be realized to be competitive.
Components in raw juice inhibiting the crystallization of sugar must be
identified to achieve very low colorant values with highest pol
of the crystals. Micro- and nanoparticulate materials can foul sensitive surface
properties of adsorbents such as activated carbons or resins. Improved approaches to clarification, such as
combined centrifugation/micro filtration or nanfiltration
of sugar juices or syrups, permit more efficient decolorizing with solid
adsorbents. Lower quality sugars can
thus be upgraded to permit isolation of acceptable product while sustaining
more favorable energy utilization.
Sustainability of Low Starch
Concentrations is Sugarcane Through Short Term Optimized Amylase Processing and
Long Term Breeding Strategies, Collins Kimbeng1, Marvellous
Zhou1, Serge Edme2, Anna Hale3 and Gillian
Eggleston4, 1School
of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences, LSU AgCenter,
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA, 2Sugarcane Field Station, Canal
Point, Florida 33438, 3Sugarcane Research Unit, ARS, USDA, Houma,
Louisiana 70360, USA, 4Commodity Utilization Unit, USDA-ARS-SRRC,
New Orleans, Louisiana 70124
Starch negatively affects the quantity and quality sugar
produced. Starch increases juice
viscosity, reduces crystallization and centrifugation rates, impedes refinery decolorization processes, and occludes into sucrose
crystals. Alpha-amylase used to
hydrolyze starch is a short term solution as the enzyme is expensive and not
always efficient. We surveyed a large
collection of cultivars and wild Saccharum
species as a prelude to selecting and breeding for low starch content in
sugarcane. Starch content varied among
the cultivars and wild Saccharum species; it
was generally higher among the wild non-sucrose producing species. Although starch values decreased as the cane
matured or after exposure to freezing temperatures, their relative rankings
among genotypes did not. Heritability
values for starch were high and backcrossing from wild into cultivated germplasm lowered starch and increased sucrose
content. Therefore, sugarcane cultivars
developed to accumulate low levels of starch represent a more economical and
sustainable strategy to mitigate the negative effects of starch.
Developments in Sugarcane Agriculture
that Affect Cane and Sugar Quality, Benjamin L. Legendre,
Louisiana State University Agricultural Center, Audubon Sugar Institute, St.
Gabriel, Louisiana 70776, USA, Tel: 225-642-0135, Fax: 225-642-8790, Email: blegendre@agcenter.lsu.edu
Sugarcane quality and sugar yield and quality are
interrelated. In many production
systems, both agricultural and manufacturing, there is conflict between productivity
in the field and sugar quality. High
productivity and/or throughput many times compete with high product
quality. However, quality can be
influenced by ever-changing developments in sugarcane agriculture and
manufacturing including the introduction of new cultivars, use of chemical ripeners, changes in cultural practices and harvesting
systems and the introduction into an industry of new disease, insect and weed
pests. There developments differentially
affect cane and juice quality and have a direct bearing on sugar quality. Further, cane and sugar quality have taken on
new meaning today with the vertical integration of many sugar operations from
field to refinery to consumer. The new
refinery today is seeking very high pol (VHP) sugar
(> 99.2 pol) and very low color (VLC) sugar
(<2200 ICUMSA units).
For more
information contact Dr. Gillian Eggleston at Gillian.eggleston@ars.usda.gov