The suitability of fodder beet tops for fermentation to ethanol: A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science (Hons) in the University of Canterbury

Abstract

These experiments were designed to test the suitability of fodder beet tops for fermentation to produce ethanol. Tops from the fodder beet, Yellow Daeno, were used. This was done by measuring the sugar content of the tops at three different harvest dates and fermenting the extracts from the tops. It was found that the extracted 'juice' from the tops had between a 1.6% and 4.5% sugar concentration depending on harvest date. The total sugar extractable from one beet top dropped considerably at later harvest dates. A rough approximation was made for the amount of sugar contained in all the tops in a ha. This figure dropped from .6 - .7 tha⁻¹ for tops harvested on March 31st, to .2 tha⁻¹ for tops harvested on July 7th (these figures were made for beet grown at a density of 100,000 plants ha⁻¹). The extracts were fermentable but because of the low initial sugar concentration of the extracts only a weak alcohol solution was produced.