In the present study, 6-mm ground corn stover and switchgrass were torrefied in temperatures ranging from 180 to 270°C for 15to 120-min residence time. Thermogravimetric analyzer was used to do the torrefaction studies. At a torrefaction temperature of 270°C and a 30-min residence time, the weight loss increased to >45%. At 180°C and 120 min, there was about 56 and 73% of moisture loss in the c...

In the United States, corn (Zea mays L.) stover has been targeted for second generation fuel production and other bio-products. Our objective was to characterize sugar and structural composition as a function of vertical distribution of corn stover (leaves and stalk) that was sampled at physiological maturity and about three weeks later from multiple USA locations. A small subset of samples was...

The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of using corn stover or three different wood-based bedding materials (kiln-dried pine wood chips, dry cedar chips, or green cedar chips) on airborne concentrations of NH, total reduced sulfides (TRS), CO, CH, and NO above lab-scaled bedded manure packs. Four bedded packs of each bedding material were maintained for two 42-d periods. Airb...

Corn stover is emerging as a viable feedstock for producing bioethanol from renewable resources. Dilute-acid pretreatment of corn stover can solubilize a significant portion of the hemicellulosic component and enhance the enzymatic digestibility of the remaining cellulose for fermentation into ethanol. In this study, dilute H2SO4 pretreatment of corn stover was performed in a steam explosion re...

A direct shear cell to measure the shear strength and flow properties of chopped switchgrass, wheat straw and corn stover was designed, fabricated, and tested. The shear strength measured at various normal stresses was found to be significantly different. Shear strength for all three chopped biomass types measured at a particular normal stress was not significantly different. The R value of the...

A grain combine was equipped with a whole-plant corn head and modified to produce single-pass, whole-plant corn harvesting with two crop streams: grain and stover. Capture of potential stover DM varied from 48% to 89% for leaves, from 49% to 92% for stalks, and was greater than 90% for husks and cobs, depending on corn head height. Stover aggregate moisture varied between 36% and 50% (w.b.), an...

Therefore, enhancing the quality of grain sorghum stover may offer an opportunity to add value to the overall Nearly 3 million hectares of grain sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L). system when post grain harvest stover residue is used Moench] are harvested in the USA each year. It may be possible to add value to crop and animal systems by enhancing the digestibility as a forage base for livestock. of...

BACKGROUND Enzymes for plant cell wall deconstruction are a major cost in the production of ethanol from lignocellulosic biomass. The goal of this research was to develop optimized synthetic mixtures of enzymes for multiple pretreatment/substrate combinations using our high-throughput biomass digestion platform, GENPLAT, which combines robotic liquid handling, statistical experimental design an...

Two studies were conducted to optimize use of alkaline-treated corn stover and wheat straw and distillers grains as partial corn replacements. In Exp. 1, a finishing experiment used 30 pens (12 steers/pen) of calf-fed steers (initial BW = 374 ± 23.9 kg) with a 2 × 2 + 1 factorial arrangement of treatments with 6 replications per treatment. Factors were grind size, where corn stover was processe...

A life-cycle assessment (LCA) of corn ethanol was conducted to determine the reduction in the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for corn ethanol compared to gasoline by integrating biomass fuels to replace fossil fuels (natural gas and grid electricity) in a U.S. Midwest dry-grind corn ethanol plant producing 0.19 hm y 1 of denatured ethanol. The biomass fuels studied are corn stover an...