The influence of mineral feeding elements to the output of bioethanol from sugar sorghum

Abstract

The article provides the results of studies about the effect of basic fertilizer and foliar nutrition of sugar sorghum plants on energy and bioethanol yield in the conditions of the Forest-Steppe southwestern part of Ukraine. The assimilation surface area of sorghum leaves in the variant with the application of N60P60K60 and foliar nutrition in the phase of tillering by the Yarylo preparation at the rate of 3 l/ha increased from 39.6 to 49.1 thousand m2 /ha compared to the control and the net productivity of photosynthesis increased by 3.29 g/m2 per day. The sugar content of sorghum stem juice in the stage of panicle formation and wax ripeness of grain in this variant increased by 1.7% – from 15.2 to 16.9%, and the sugar collection – from 5.16 to 8.68 t/ha compared to the control without fertilizer. A high yield of bioethanol was achieved when harvesting sugar sorghum in the wax ripeness phase – ranging from 2.26 to 2.28 t/ha. In the variant using mineral fertilizers (N60P60K60) in autumn and foliar feeding in spring in the tillering phase with the complex microfertilizers Yarylo (3 l/ha) the bioethanol yield was 1.51 t/ha (panicle earing stage) and 2.58 t/ha (wax maturity stage).

Keywords

• sugar sorghum
• mineral fertilizers
• foliar nutrition
• productivity
• bioethanol yield