[Bioconversion] Conserve -- Sago, best usage for conversion

[rkurt at tadaust.org.au]

Geoff Thomas wrote:
> <<snipped>>
> The Sago also can handle being submerged for long periods, can have its feet in the water, and is
> quite salt tolerant, so has a possibly different niche to the Leucaena.
>   
Quite a different niche. Leucena was being used as a shade/nitrogen  
crop with coffee, while sago is a real swamp plant
> I am particularly thinking of treated sewage outfall wetlands as a potential high growth
> situation but that side I am not so concerned about, more as to how one would best bio-convert
> this tree.
>   
Ferment the starch for sure, digesting the remaining pith will take 
large scale plant if you're envisioning the usual methane digestion. It 
will be no better, in fact likely much worse than cowdung. Cowdung after 
all has a lot of cudchewing involved in it's production. I would expect 
several weeks of residence time per bolus of pith.
This of course is an opinion based on what  I have read, no practical 
experience. My one attempt at fermenting sacsac starch fell apart on my 
ignorance of the need for saccharification. I've learnt a little more 
over the intervening forty something years.

regards,

Kurt