Comparison of greenhouse gas emissions of different biomass management scenarios in Indonesian peatlands

Peatlands play an important role as carbon pools with one third of the world's soil carbon stored (Joosten & Clarke, 2002). However, peatlands of Southeast Asia have suffered shrinkage due to economic and natural resource pressure, often caused by land use change and fires. In this work, a comparison of three scenarios related to current land uses and aboveground biomass valorization of peatlands was performed. The objective of this study is to compare the global contribution to climate change that could be avoided by means of the biomass valorization and stopping the fires in peatlands. Three scenarios were defined to compare the impact to climate change through greenhouse gas emissions of different land management for biomass from peatland. The scenario assessment is based on meta-analysis reviews. The total greenhouse gas emissions estimated for the scenarios “conservation”, “business as usual” and “biomass valorization” were 141, 1114 and 205 t ha-1 CO2 equivalent respectively. The “biomass valorization” scenario avoid 909 t ha-1 CO2 equivalent in comparison with “business as usual” scenario and, contributes 64 t ha-1 CO2 equivalent more than “conservation” scenario. Scenario “biomass valorization” is an alternative to stop the fires in peatlands maintaining a balance between economic activities and contributing in peat formation

Pocket Power! : increasing the potential of anaerobic digestion at farm-scale

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Valorisation of lignin – Achievements of the LignoValue project

Lignocellulosic biorefinery for production of biofuels, materials and chemicals requires valorization of all fractions including lignin. As a consequence of its poly-aromatic structure, lignin potentially serves as a source for aromatic chemicals. The developed biorefinery concept of the LignoValue project comprises two major steps: (1) Organosolv fractionation of wheat straw and willow into (hemi)cellulose and high purity lignin. (2) Further conversion of the isolated lignin via catalytic pyrolysis, supercritical depolymerization and partial hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) into different components like low molecular phenolic compounds, wood adhesives and fuel additives. The cellulose fraction resulting after organosolv fractionation is effectively hydrolysed by enzymes for biofuel production. Quality assessment of the liberated lignins shows interesting characteristics for follow-up chemistry such as high purity, relatively low molar mass and polydispersity. Catalytic pyrolysis in a fluidised bed at 400-500°C was found to convert organosolv lignin in 35-55% phenolic oil, 10% identified monomeric phenolic compounds, 10-20% water, 5-20% gas and 35-55% char. Supercritical depolymerisation of lignin in carbon dioxide based solvents resulted in a similar spectrum of products, however, at a lower temperature (ca 300°C) but at higher pressures. In both thermochemical processes the use of promotors or catalysts lead to an improved yield of the target monomeric aromatic products. Also the residual char fraction shows interesting properties for use in bio-char applications. Catalytic semi-continuous HDO of lignin in hydrogen atmosphere can be manipulated to yield both light oils or heavy oils as potential additives to fuels. Suitable catalysts were found to convert depolymerised lignin to phenolic oils in high yields. In this process no char formation is observed. The lignin oils were successfully tested on lab scale as partial substitution of phenol in resins for gluing wood panels. The LignoValue concept is critically reviewed in a techno-economic analysis demonstrating the potential for further commercial development and adoptation of this innovative biorefinery process in Europe

Lignin engineering in forest trees

Wood is a renewable resource that is mainly composed of lignin and cell wall polysaccharides. The polysaccharide fraction is valuable as it can be converted into pulp and paper, or into fermentable sugars. On the other hand, the lignin fraction is increasingly being considered a valuable source of aromatic building blocks for the chemical industry. The presence of lignin in wood is one of the major recalcitrance factors in woody biomass processing, necessitating the need for harsh chemical treatments to degrade and extract it prior to the valorization of the cell wall polysaccharides, cellulose and hemicellulose. Over the past years, large research efforts have been devoted to engineering lignin amount and composition to reduce biomass recalcitrance toward chemical processing. We review the efforts made in forest trees, and compare results from greenhouse and field trials. Furthermore, we address the value and potential of CRISPR-based gene editing in lignin engineering and its integration in tree breeding programs

SIDATIM: assessing the potential of new biomass crops and valuable timber trees in agroforestry systems

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Improving Biomethanation of Chicken Manure by Co-Digestion with Ethanol Plant Effluent

As the global production of chicken manure has steadily increased, its proper management has become a challenging issue. This study examined process effluent from a bioethanol plant as a co-substrate for efficient anaerobic digestion of chicken manure. An anaerobic continuous reactor was operated in mono- and co-digestion modes by adding increasing amounts of the ethanol plant effluent (0%, 10%, and 20% (v/v) of chicken manure). Methanogenic performance improved significantly in terms of both methane production rate and yield (by up to 66% and 36%, respectively), with an increase in organic loading rate over the experimental phases. Correspondingly, the specific methanogenic activity was significantly higher in the co-digestion sludge than in the mono-digestion sludge. The reactor did not suffer any apparent process imbalance, ammonia inhibition, or nutrient limitation throughout the experiment, with the removal of volatile solids being stably maintained (56.3???58.9%). The amount of ethanol plant effluent appears to directly affect the rate of acidification, and its addition at ???20% (v/v) to chicken manure needs to be avoided to maintain a stable pH. The overall results suggest that anerobic co-digestion with ethanol plant effluent may provide a practical means for the stable treatment and valorization of chicken manure

Culturing requirements and commercial quality of four different species of Ulva (Ulvales, chlorophyta)

The commercial production of Ulva spp. by aquaculture is gaining in importance due both to the qualitative and quantitative increase in the use of the harvested biomass and its new applications in inland IMTA techniques. However, very little is known about the specific culturing requirements and commercial quality of the different species of Ulva. The aim of this work is to try from this point of view four Ulva species that could be grown in southern Europe: U. australis, U. fasciata, U. ohnoi and U. rigidaPostprint (author's final draft