Making electricity from sorghum? Yes we can.

Choose the right variety.

We must choose a biomass sorghum, able to grow 5 meters high and to produce a very high biomass volume: up to 80 tons / ha in green. To be resistant to lodging, this biomass sorghum will have the characteristic of being woody, and therefore unsuitable for the production of silage intended for animal feed.

Start harvesting by grinding.

Grinding is the first stage of the harvest and it applies to the whole plant. Two techniques are possible: the hammer mill and the corn mill.

Left: the corn mill. Right: the hammer mill

The result of the grinding on corn mill (left) is coarser than that of the hammer mill (right), but this has no consequence for the pressing.

Dry then swath.

After the grinding stage, the sorghum is left on the ground for 5 to 7 days to dry. It is then swathed.

Press and … deliver.
The last step is pressing.

The bales of sorghum are then transported to the factory where they will be transformed into electricity.

Each year, the plant converts the equivalent of 40,000T of biomass, which supplies about 60,000 homes with electricity.