Abstract KARAFIÁT, Z., VÍTĚZ, T., SOMERLÍKOVÁ, K., GADUŠ, J., HAITL, M., KOUTNÝ, T.: Employment of maize silage in non-liquid fermentation for biogas production. Acta univ. agric. et silvic. Mendel. Brun., 2012, LX, No. 6, pp. 153-160 This paper deals with the optimization of the anaerobic fermentation process of maize silage using the non-liquid technology. The aim of the paper is to increase the knowledge necessary for more effi cient running of biogas stations using batch technology of non-liquid fermentation. The preferable ratio of initial materials, fresh maize silage and maize silage a er partial fermentation, was verifi ed within this experiment. Dynamics of the process, especially the quantity and quality of produced biogas has been monitored during the experiment. All the experiments have been done in the batch-system fermentors of volume of 0.48 m 3 equipped with an independent and indirect circuit of water heating, the heat has been transferred to the material throught the steel wall of the fermentor. The material has been tested in the mesophilic conditions with the temperature of the 38 °C. The retention time of material in fermentors has been 27 days. The results of our experiments reveal the fact that the maize silage of lower mix ratio produced about 22.8 % more of biogas counted to one kilogram of dry matter than the maize silage of higher mix ratio. non-liquid substrates, anaerobic fermentation, biogas, maize silage Transformations of biogas off er a large scale of advantages in comparison with the other technologies using the renewable sources of energy. Biogas technologies were evaluated as the most power-effi cient and ecologically rewarding technologies of energy production coming from renewable sources (Fehrenbach, 2008). One of the perspectives according to which technologies of biogas production can be distinguished is the content of dry matter (DM) in the processed material. Generally speaking, when the content of dry matter is up to 15 % we talk about technology of liquid fermentation otherwise when the content of dry matter is higher we talk about non-liquid fermentation. Due to the absence of complete information about the process of fermentation of non-liquid substrates, laboratories for research of non-liquid fermentation have been put into operation. This project was implemented by FORTEX AGS Ltd. in cooperation with Mendel University in Brno. This paper deals with the use of maize silage in non-liquid fermentation technology. It is usually the discontinual technology with percolate spraying, without mechanical mixing of fermented material, which is used for fermentation of energy crop
