title: The effect of harvest time, dry matter content and mechanical pretreatments on anaerobic digestion and enzymatic hydrolysis of miscanthus.
abstract: Miscanthus x giganteus was harvested as both green and mature biomass and the dry matter content of the driest harvest was artificially decreased by adding water in two subsamples, giving a total of five dry matter contents. All five biomass types were mechanically pretreated by roller-milling, extrusion or grinding and accumulated methane production and enzymatically-accessible sugars were measured. Accumulated methane production was studied using sigmoid curves that allowed comparison among the treatments of the rate of the methane production and ultimate methane yield. The green biomass gave the highest methane yield and highest levels of enzymatically-accessible cellulose. The driest biomass gave the best effect from extrusion but with the highest energy consumption, whereas roller-milling was most efficient on wet biomass. The addition of water to the last harvest improved the effect of roller-milling and equalled extrusion of the samples in efficiency.
authors.affiliation: Aarhus University, Department of Agroecology, Blichers Allé 20, 8830 Tjele, Denmark. Electronic address: sufn@agro.au.dk.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frydendal-Nielsen
authors.affiliation: Aarhus University, Department of Engineering, Hangøvej 2, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark.
authors.forename: Maibritt
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hjorth
authors.affiliation: Aarhus University, Department of Agroecology, Blichers Allé 20, 8830 Tjele, Denmark.
authors.forename: Sanmohan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baby
authors.affiliation: University of Copenhagen, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Rolighedsvej 23, 1958 Frederiksberg, Denmark.
authors.forename: Claus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Felby
authors.affiliation: Aarhus University, Department of Agroecology, Blichers Allé 20, 8830 Tjele, Denmark.
authors.forename: Uffe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Jørgensen
authors.affiliation: Aarhus University, Department of Agroecology, Forsøgsvej 1, 4200 Slagelse, Denmark.
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gislum
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D018533:Biomass; D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry; D003890:Desiccation / Q000379:methods; D006868:Hydrolysis; D008697:Methane / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D006109:Poaceae / Q000737:chemistry*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D002482:Cellulose; D008697:Methane
keywords: Energy crop; Extrusion; Methane; Roller-milling; Sigmoid growth curves