• Energy Research

This study showed that kraft cellulosic pulps from Miscanthus giganetus JM Greef and Deuter ex Hodk. and Renvoize, sweet sorghum and 5 other fast growing grasses may be easily enzymatically converted to glucose-rich sugar feedstocks. The scientific goal of the paper was to assess and compare the potential yield of hydrolysis and verify whether these grasses may be a source of sugars for fermentation processes. Kraft pulping was used as a pretreatment method and hydrolysis of the pulps was conducted using a commercial multienzyme preparation containing cellulases and xylanases at initial substrate concentrations of 0.476, 3.88 and 7.46% w/v, and 3 different enzyme loadings. Results showed that tall wheatgrass, striped tuber oat grass, tall fescue and smooth bromegrass may be efficiently converted to sugar feedstocks for biotechnology application, but that the simple reducing sugars yield is lower than for wood, due to lower cellulose content.

The aim of this work was to analyze the impact of three different moisture contents (MC), at 45% MC, 65% MC, 75% MC, on the degradation of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin during fungi treatment by Flammulina velutipes of Agropyron elongatum 'BAMAR' and on biogas production. The analysis of chemical composition shown that F. velutipes had greater selectivity for lignin biodegradation with the highest hemicellulose and lignin removal at 29.1% and 35.4%, respectively, and lowest cellulose removal (20.48%) at 65% MC. F. velutipes cultivated at 65% MC increased biogas production of 398.07Ndm(3)kg(-1)VS(-1), which was 120% higher than the untreated sample. These treatment conditions resulted in 134% more methane yield compared with untreated sample. The results of this study suggested that A. elongatum is a potential biomass for biogas production in agriculture biogas plant and white-rot fungus F. velutipes provides an effective methods for improve biodegradation of A. elongatum.

Abstract An experiment was conducted to determine traits related to biomass quality and quantity of a few wild populations of a new bioenergy grass species – Elymus elongatus (tall wheatgrass). Four wild populations of tall wheat grass and one cultivar ‘Szarvasi-1’ were evaluated during three years in a field experiment. Plant morphological traits, biomass and seed yield were examined as well as analyses for biomass quality features (heating value, chemical composition of biomass and ash content) were also performed. Variation of examined traits was described in tested populations. Leaf dimensions (width, length and area) were significantly and negatively correlated with some biomass quality features (heating value and Hydrogen contents). Traits as number of generative stems, thousand seed yield and seed yield per plant were positively correlated with ash and sulphur contents. Selection procedure in tall wheatgrass for bioenergy purposes should take into account short and narrow leaves, short seed heads and high biomass yield as potential indicators of relatively high heating value. Intensive selection for high biomass yield without taking into account the weight of other features may result in unwanted ash and sulphur concentration in the biomass.