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Ensiling of crops for biogas production: effects on methane yield and total solids determination
BACKGROUND: Ensiling is a common method of preserving energy crops for anaerobic digestion, and many scientific studies report that ensiling increases the methane yield. In this study, the ensiling process and the methane yields before and after ensiling were studied for four crop materials. RESULTS...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2011
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3240833/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22032645 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1754-6834-4-44 |
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author | Kreuger, Emma Nges, Ivo Achu Björnsson, Lovisa |
author_facet | Kreuger, Emma Nges, Ivo Achu Björnsson, Lovisa |
author_sort | Kreuger, Emma |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Ensiling is a common method of preserving energy crops for anaerobic digestion, and many scientific studies report that ensiling increases the methane yield. In this study, the ensiling process and the methane yields before and after ensiling were studied for four crop materials. RESULTS: The changes in wet weight and total solids (TS) during ensiling were small and the loss of energy negligible. The methane yields related to wet weight and to volatile solids (VS) were not significantly different before and after ensiling when the VS were corrected for loss of volatile compounds during TS and VS determination. However, when the TS were measured according to standard methods and not corrected for losses of volatile compounds, the TS loss during ensiling was overestimated for maize and sugar beet. The same methodological error leads to overestimation of methane yields; when TS and VS were not corrected the methane yield appeared to be 51% higher for ensiled than fresh sugar beet. CONCLUSIONS: Ensiling did not increase the methane yield of the studied crops. Published methane yields, as well as other information on silage related to uncorrected amounts of TS and VS, should be regarded with caution. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3240833 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2011 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-32408332011-12-20 Ensiling of crops for biogas production: effects on methane yield and total solids determination Kreuger, Emma Nges, Ivo Achu Björnsson, Lovisa Biotechnol Biofuels Research BACKGROUND: Ensiling is a common method of preserving energy crops for anaerobic digestion, and many scientific studies report that ensiling increases the methane yield. In this study, the ensiling process and the methane yields before and after ensiling were studied for four crop materials. RESULTS: The changes in wet weight and total solids (TS) during ensiling were small and the loss of energy negligible. The methane yields related to wet weight and to volatile solids (VS) were not significantly different before and after ensiling when the VS were corrected for loss of volatile compounds during TS and VS determination. However, when the TS were measured according to standard methods and not corrected for losses of volatile compounds, the TS loss during ensiling was overestimated for maize and sugar beet. The same methodological error leads to overestimation of methane yields; when TS and VS were not corrected the methane yield appeared to be 51% higher for ensiled than fresh sugar beet. CONCLUSIONS: Ensiling did not increase the methane yield of the studied crops. Published methane yields, as well as other information on silage related to uncorrected amounts of TS and VS, should be regarded with caution. BioMed Central 2011-10-27 /pmc/articles/PMC3240833/ /pubmed/22032645 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1754-6834-4-44 Text en Copyright ©2011 Kreuger et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Kreuger, Emma Nges, Ivo Achu Björnsson, Lovisa Ensiling of crops for biogas production: effects on methane yield and total solids determination |
title | Ensiling of crops for biogas production: effects on methane yield and total solids determination |
title_full | Ensiling of crops for biogas production: effects on methane yield and total solids determination |
title_fullStr | Ensiling of crops for biogas production: effects on methane yield and total solids determination |
title_full_unstemmed | Ensiling of crops for biogas production: effects on methane yield and total solids determination |
title_short | Ensiling of crops for biogas production: effects on methane yield and total solids determination |
title_sort | ensiling of crops for biogas production: effects on methane yield and total solids determination |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3240833/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22032645 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1754-6834-4-44 |
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