In this article we will discuss about the industrial uses of sorghum.
1. Binding Industry:
It is used in the preparation of gypsum wallboards, insulation boards and as adhesive in plywood and flake board manufacturing.
2. Foundry Binders:
Gelatinised sorghum flour is used as foundry core binder and as molding and sand additives.
3. Mineral Refining:
Sorghum flour is used in processing copper, lead, zinc, phosphate, potash and aluminum ores.
4. Drilling Starch:
Refined sorghum flour is used as a component in oil drilling fluid in the maintenance of hole already made.
5. Alcohol:
Ethyl alcohol is the most important fermentation product of grain sorghum.
6. Animal Nutrition:
Most extensive use of sorghum in India has been feeding of dried stalks. Green sorghum fodder is also fed to cattle. Most of the sorghums in India could be used as dual purpose types for grain as well as silage. Sorghum grain is used as feed for cattle, swine and poultry in USA. In India, grain as animal feed is limited to poultry industry.
7. Sweet Sorghum:
Special type of sorghum known as sweet sorghum, capable of accumulating sugar in stem juice as sugarcane, can be grown and processed to produce jaggery, syrup sugar etc., including fuel alcohol. Sweet sorghums can yield around 30-40 t ha-1 of green cane in addition to normal grain yield around 2.0 t ha-1. Sugar contentment in juice varies from 16 to 23 per cent.
Most sweet sorghum varieties require 115-120 days of maturity during kharif. Stalk can be harvested either along with the grain or 4-5 days after grain harvest. A number of varies yielding 50 t ha-1 of green mass have been developed at NRCS, Hyderabad.
The first sweet sorghum variety released was SSV 84 in 1992. Other sweet sorghums of importance are CSV 1955, SSV 74, HES 4 and CSV 22. The first sweet sorghum hybrid (CSH 22SS), with yield potential around 45 t ha-1, was released in 2005.