System and Method for Harvesting and Processing Sugar-Containing Crops in the Field
AssigneeLeeMax, LLC
InventorsVincent E. Bernard, Brian M. Balvin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A mobile field harvesting process for harvesting and further processing sugar-containing crops, such as sweet sorghum, includes cutting the crop, chopping the crop, and reducing the crop to the crop's separated juice and solids in the field. Separation is carried out using a chopper and a juicer. The juicer may be a screw press. The juice may be stored and fermented on the farm, followed by distillation by a mobile distillation process to separate the alcohol from the stillage.
Claims15
A mobile field harvester, comprising:
- a mobile chopper assembly adapted to chop a sugar-containing crop in a field, the chopper assembly having an inlet for receiving the sugar-containing crop and an outlet for discharging chopped segments of the sugar-containing crop;
- a mobile juicer receiving the segments of the sugar-containing crop and extracting juices from the segments of the sugar-containing crop in the field;
- and
- a mobile container adjacent to the mobile juicer for collecting the extracted juices from the mobile juicer in the field.
A method for harvesting sugar-containing crops with a mobile field harvester, the method comprising the steps of:
- cutting a sugar-containing crop from the sugar-containing crop roots in a field utilizing a crop cutter assembly;
- moving the sugar-containing crop from the crop cutter assembly at a controllable rate to a chopper assembly;
- chopping the sugar-containing crop with the chopper assembly into a plurality of segments;
- extracting juice from the plurality of segments with a screw press assembly;
- and
- capturing in a container the extracted juice from the screw press assembly.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.