Sweet Sorghum Juice Extraction with 3-Roll Mills

ABSTRACT REPLICATED 15-kg lots of stripped stalks with mean diameters of 15.5 mm (small), 22.5 mm (medium), and 29.5 mm (large) were passed once through a vertical roll mill with the clearances (gaps) between discharge rolls set at 0.6, 1.2, and 2.4 mm. Juice extraction and sugar recovery were highest with the 0.6 mm discharge roll gap, but large stalks occasionally plugged the mill at this setting. Juice extraction was lower from small stalks than from medium or large stalks. More fermentable sugar was recovered from medium stalks than from small or large stalks. When the discharge rolls were set at the smallest practical gap for continuous operation, the vertical and horizontal mills, respectively, processed 0.3 and 0.6 t/h of stripped stalks and extracted 42 and 47% of the stalk mass as juice..