Banagrass (Pennisetum purpureum) approximately 4 months old was hand-harvested and shredded. Half
of the sample was dewatered using a screw-press, whereby the extracted juice was used for cultivating
an edible fungus, Rhizopus microsporus, for aquaculture feed supplementation. The remaining biomass
was divided into four separate streams: (1) wet, juiced; (2) dry, juiced; (3) wet, unjuiced; and (4) dry,
unjuiced. Each stream was pretreated with dilute sulfuric acid and compared on the basis of sugar release
at varying acid concentrations, temperatures, and residence times. Wet, juiced banagrass released the
most soluble sugars (theoretical xylose and 85% glucose). Ultrasonication (20 kHz) was applied to further
increase monomeric sugar release but demonstrated little improvement on total sugar yields. Fungal
biomass generated from banagrass juice exhibited potential as a fungal-protein production medium producing
1.16 ± 0.34 g biomass increase/g initial biomass.