Habitat disturbance affects numerous ecosystem components and processes, but its effect on continuous soybean system is less available. Soybean was seeded following six preceding crops, including grain soybean (Glycine max L. Merill.), wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.), tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.), corn (Zea mays L.) and hemp (Cannabis Satia L.), on a Mollisol ...

Fuel and emission characteristics of co-products of the ethanol dry-grind process [distillers wet grains (DWG), concentrated distillers solubles (referred to as “syrup”), and distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS)], and corn stover are evaluated. Biomass co-products from the dry-grind ethanol production process, particularly DDGS, are good sources for the electrical and thermal energy nee...

Introduction Biomass energy has received much attention in recent years. We now use about one third of the U.S. corn crop for biofuels. More recently, attention has focused on cellulosic resources—dedicated energy crops like switchgrass, miscanthus, and corn stover. Now the question has been raised concerning the economics of collecting just the corn cobs for energy instead of the stover. This ...

The ability to accurately and rapidly measure plant cell wall composition, relative monolignol content and lignin-hemicellulose inter-unit linkage distributions has become essential to efforts centered on reducing the recalcitrance of biomass by genetic engineering. Growing (13)C enriched transgenic plants is a viable route to achieve the high-throughput, detailed chemical analysis of whole pla...

To apply bacterial cellulases for efficient saccharification of biomass, three Clostridium thermocellum cellulases and a Thermoanaerobacter brockii β1,4-glucosidase were synthesized in Escherichia coli, and the proportions among them were optimized. When the activities of CelD, CBHA, CBH48Y, and CglT were set at 554, 0.91, 0.91, and 856 mU per assay, respectively, the percent conversion of rege...

To decrease the cost of bioethanol production, biomass recalcitrance needs to be overcome so that the conversion of biomass to bioethanol becomes more efficient. CO(2) laser irradiation can disrupt the lignocellulosic physical structure and reduce the average size of fiber. Analyses with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, specific surface area, and the microstructure of corn stover were u...

This study was performed to determine the optimum level of soybean meal diets for two banded sea bream for growth performance, nutrient utilization, body composition and serum biochemistry. Two banded seabream were fed five experimental diets which were formulated replace fish meal by soybean meal at 0, 20, 30, 40 and 50%. Up to 40% of dietary fish meal was successfully replaced with no growth...

Corn stover was hydrolyzed using dilute sulfuric acid at mass fractions of 2, 4, and 6 % over reaction times up to 300 min at 80 °C. The mass concentrations of sugars (xylose and glucose) and degradation product (furfural) were determined and the kinetic parameters of mathematical models for predicting them in the hydrolysates were obtained. According to the models, an optimal condition for hyd...