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

[AJH]

On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:17:15 +1000, rkurt at tadaust.org.au wrote:

>Sago provides the staple diet for people of New Guinea who live in the 
>swampy lowlands. The starch is held in the pithy trunk. Traditionally 
>the pith is beaten into a pukp with adze like tools and then the starch 
>is washed out of it and settled in some sort of a container.

This sounds a bit similar to cassava (manioc). Cassava has to be
further treated to remove cyanide compounds before it can be consumed.
It too is a large yielder of starch and a staple. I posted about this
on the [stoves] list long ago, my only experience is from watching a
television documentary, but it seemed the liquid draining off during
the treatment would have potential for recovering non food energy.


>It would doubtlessly ferment well, but it takes a fair number of years 
>for a tree to reach maturity. People also use the leaves for thatch and 
>the frond stems for house walls.
>
>Digesting the pith remains might work, I've no idea on that.
>

I thought both fermentation to ethanol and digestion for biogas
consumed the soluble volatile compounds with the yeast being specific
in using sugars. It seems too good to be true that both processes
could be used in sequence.

There remains the possibility of pyrolysing the pith, what happens
with it at present after the starch has been removed?

AJH