Decreasing lignin content of plant biomass by genetic engineering is believed to mitigate biomass recalcitrance and improve saccharification efficiency of plant biomass. In this study, we compared two different pretreatment methods (i.e., dilute acid and cellulose solvent) on transgenic plant biomass samples having different lignin contents and investigated biomass saccharification efficiency. ...

To improve the enzymatic digestibility of switchgrass at mild temperatures, lime pretreatment of switchgrass was explored at 50 and 21 degrees Celsius, and compared with that at 121 degrees Celsius. The effects of residence time, lime loading, and biomass washing on the sugar production efficiency were investigated. Pretreatments were evaluated based on the yields of biomass-derived sugars in t...

Different chemicals were used to study the effect of pretreatment of Mucor rouxii biomass on bioadsorption of Pb, Cd, Ni and Zn. Pretreatment with detergent and alkali chemicals such as NaOH, Na 2 CO 3 and NaHCO 3 were found to improve or maintain the bioadsorption capacity in comparison with live M. rouxii biomass. Acid pretreatment using HCl, H 2 SO 4 and C 2 H 4 O 2 resulted in a significant...

Airborne lidar (Light Detection And Ranging) is a proven technology that can be used to accurately assess aboveground forest biomass and bio-energy feedstocks. The overall goal of this study was to develop a method for assessing aboveground biomass and component biomass for individual trees using airborne lidar data in forest settings typical for loblolly pine stands (Pinus taeda L.) in the sou...

The two major pathways for energy utilization from biomass are conversion to a liquid fuel (i.e., biofuels) or conversion to electricity (i.e., biopower). In the United States (US), biomass policy has focused on biofuels. However, this paper will investigate three options for biopower: low co-firing (co-firing scenarios refer to combusting a given percentage of biomass with coal) (5%–10% biomas...

Land consolidation changes the land use types and then the biomass. The measure and calculation of biomass fore-and-aft land consolidation worked out by the sample plot method in terms of arbor, shrub, herbage plants and crop. The result shows that the biomass is increased 580 t after land consolidation, meaning the impression of land consolidation is remarkable in general. The results of monom...

Crop biomass is a critical variable for characterizing crop growth development, understanding dry matter partitioning, and predicting grain yield. Previous studies on the spectroscopic estimation of crop biomass focused on the use of various spectral indices based on chlorophyll absorption features and found that they often became saturated at high biomass levels. Given that crop biomass is com...

ÐA protocol was developed to rapidly assess the eciency of chemical washing for the removal of excess biomass from biotrickling ®lters for waste air treatment. Although the experiment was performed on a small scale, conditions were chosen to simulate application in full-scale biotrickling ®lters. From 18 treatments with di€erent combinations and concentrations of chemicals, only washing with 0...

The thermal characteristics and kinetics of coal, biomass (pine sawdust) and their blends were evaluated under combustion conditions using a non-isothermal thermogravimetric method (TGA). Biomass was blended with coal in the range of 5-80 wt.% to evaluate their co-combustion behaviour. No significant interactions were detected between the coal and biomass, since no deviations from their expecte...

Earth's most recent major extinction episode, the Quaternary Megafauna Extinction, claimed two-thirds of mammal genera and one-half of species that weighed >44 kg between approximately 50,000 and 3,000 years ago. Estimates of megafauna biomass (including humans as a megafauna species) for before, during, and after the extinction episode suggest that growth of human biomass largely matched the l...