Browsing by Subject "Biodegradability"

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    Biochemical composition of biomass and its impact on the prediction of the specific methane yield potential
    (2017) Mukengele, Michael Mutombo; Jungbluth, Thomas
    This thesis analyzes the biomass biochemical composition and its influence on the specific methane yield potential of energy crops. The influence of the ensiling technique and the specific methane yield potential gained using a batch-test scaled up to semi-continuous flow system were also assessed. The results show that through ensiling process the risk of over-estimating the specific methane yield potential was particularly high for silages of low DM content. Through ensiling up to 8.6% higher methane yield potential could be achieved. The impact was different depending on the maturity index of the crop material. The evaluation of the bioconversion efficiency in batch and semi-continuous flow digester showed that 80% to 87% of the theoretical methane yield potential could be recovered in a batch-test. By scaling up batch the bioconversion efficiency decreased of up to 19%. The investigation on maize showed that the absolute values of the biochemical crop traits and in-vitro estimates of digestibility for whole-crop were poor predictors for high specific methane yield potential (R² = 0.31 to 0.32). Other crops alternative to maize showed a wider variation range in specific methane yield potential. Reproductive crop fractions of lipid rich crops revealed higher specific methane yields reaching 0.455 mN³ CH4/ kg ODM in sunflower crown and 0.598 mN³ CH4/ kg ODM in rape seed. The stalk/stem fraction of these crops seemed to be the most limiting factor for degradability. Conversely, carbohydrates rich crops (rye and sorghum) showed methane yields slightly lower or equal to those of maize.