Pyrolysis of wheat and barley straw

King oyster mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii) contains many medicinal and nutritional values, excellent flavors, and a long shelf life. Cultivation of edible mushroom on agricultural and lignocellulosic waste like wheat straw and wood chips gives a high yield and nutritional contains. In present study, the effects of lignocellulosic organic wastes, such as wood chips, wheat and barley straw, sugar beet pulp, sawdust and maize stem residue as basal substrate and wheat and rice bran, soybean powder and their combinations were used as supplements. We analyzed mushroom production gap, mushroom fresh weight, moisture content, dry matter, and protein content of fruit body traits. A factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with four replications. Supplementation of wheat bran in wood chips increased the mushroom production gap and dry matter content. The highest mushroom fresh weight and moisture content were achieved on barley straw and sugar beet pulp substrate complemented with rice bran, respectively. In addition, protein content ranged from 4.64 % (barley straw + wheat bran and wood chips + soybean powder + rice bran treatments) to 13.66 % (wheat straw + wheat bran + soybean powder treatment). The quality of P. eryngii was significantly affected by substrate ingredients. The type of substrate as well as the type and quantity of supplement appeared to have a substantial effect on prolonging the delayed-release nutrients.

Compaction characteristics of barley, canola, oat and wheat straw

Recombinant fibrolytic feed enzymes and ammonia fibre expansion (AFEX) pretreatment of crop residues to improve fibre degradability in cattle

Biohydrogen production from residual biomass: The potential of wheat, corn, rice, and barley straw - recent advances.

Five different agricultural residues, barley straw, wheat straw, corn stover, corn stalks and alfalfa stalks were pretreated by steam explosion. The pretreated agricultural residues were then hydrolyzed by the addition of 15 IU of Trichoderma E58 cellulase per gram dry weight of residue. This resulted in the hydrolysis of 46% of the barley straw, 42% of the wheat straw, 38% of the corn stover and corn stalks and 31% of the alfalfa stalks, to reducing sugars after 24 hrs incubation. Water washing the steam treated wheat straw increased the percent hydrolysis of cellulose to glucose from 18% to 35%. When the agricultural residues were fermented to ethanol using a combined hydrolysis and fermentation procedure, the efficiency of hydrolysis was further improved by 8% to 19%, depending on the nature of the substrate.

Bioenergy potential from crop residue biomass in Araucania Region of Chile

The aim was to evaluate the effect of size (long or chopped wheat straw), type (barley or wheat) and presence/absence (1week) of straw supplementation on behaviour and welfare of fattening lambs. Sixteen lambs (65days) were individually housed to be used in two simultaneous experiments (8 lambs each) for 5weeks of fattening. After a habituation period, they were offered straw that differed either in size (Experiment 1) or type (Experiment 2), which was followed by a week without straw and then reallocation of straw. Maintenance behaviours, play and stereotypies were analysed using video recording. Physiological stress responses were measured using blood samples taken at the end of the week without straw and after the reallocation of the straw. A preference test was performed during the last week. Concentrate and roughage consumption, average daily gain and conversion index were estimated. Lambs provided with long straw spent more time eating forage, playing and performed fewer stereotypies (Experiment 1). Lambs given wheat straw increased their play behaviour compared with those given barley straw, without affecting stereotypies (Experiment 2). When the straw was removed, lambs performed more behaviours associated with stress; however, this was not reflected in blood stress indicators. Lambs clearly preferred long straw over chopped straw, but no clear preference was observed between wheat and barley straw. The amount of forage intake was consistent with the time spent eating forage, but the amount of concentrate intake did not vary with eating concentrate behaviour, since the amount of concentrate intake was higher when the straw was removed, especially in Experiment 2. Our results show that size more than type of straw supplement impact the behaviour of lambs. Long straw reduces the stereotypies and increases play. This may improve the welfare and performance of fattening lambs, adding ethical value to a highly appreciated product.

A 2-year field study was conducted to compare the effect of wheat straw, its biochar, and wheat straw plus biochar addition on soil fluxes of CO2, CH4, and N2O during the growing season, and soil properties and crop yield in a Black Chernozemic soil planted to barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) in central Alberta, Canada. The objective was to assess the benefit of applying biochar instead of its feedstock, wheat straw, in improving environmental sustainability. Biochar addition did not affect soil CH4 oxidation, but decreased CO2 and N2O emissions as compared with both wheat straw applied alone and wheat straw and biochar applied together in 2010 and 2011 (p < 0.001), and resulted in a lower global warming potential, indicating that the biochar was effective in mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emission from the agricultural soil, as a result of biochar suppressing soil microbial activity and reducing soil N availability. Biochar application reduced N2O emission over 2 years, indicating its longer-term impact. Biochar application alone increased barley yield by 9.9 to 20.4% as compared to the other three treatments, thus reducing yield-scaled greenhouse gas emission intensity by 27.2 to 50.9% (p = 0.013 for the control and p < 0.001 for both wheat straw–amended treatments), with an average reduction of 3.43 t CO2-eq t−1 grain. The application of both wheat straw and its biochar reduced the temperature sensitivity of soil CO2 emission (Q10, p < 0.001), but the application of wheat straw or its biochar alone did not affect Q10, indicating that biochar application reduces the sensitivity to temperature changes of the decomposition of the new organic matter added to the soil. We conclude that (1) the application of wheat straw–derived biochar was preferred to raw wheat straw in mitigating GHG emission and (2) biochar can be an effective management strategy for properly handling crop residues in sustainable agriculture.

Wheat straw (WS), barley straw (BS), sorghum stover (SS), and maize stover (MS) were subjected to different times of ensiling and urea treatment levels in order to identify the most effective ensiling time and urea treatment level to attain preferable nutritional aptitude. Both straws and stovers were treated with 0.40 and 0.50 g concentration levels of urea solution dissolved in 0.8 L of water and sealed plastic sheet for one to four weeks. Accordingly, to the general observation at the time of opening, there was no mold growth, appeared golden brown in color, and had soft consistency with a strong ammonia smell ensuring the effectiveness of the treatment. The chemical analyses and IVDMD were done at HRCL. The results showed that the urea level had a no-significant effect on all chemical compositions and IVDMD for all urea-treated straws and stovers. Therefore, treatment with 40 g urea may be more economical. On the other hand, negative and significant (P&lt;0.001) correlations existed between IVDMD and fiber fractions for all treatments. While other quality parameters, IVDMD and CP, were strongly correlated (r=0.90) (P&lt;0.01) for WS and BS. The results also revealed that the treatment duration on both straws and stovers should be 28 days. Key words: Treatment, ensiling time, chemical analysis, digestibility, crop residues.

Isolation of cellulose nanocrystals from grain straws and their use for the preparation of carboxymethyl cellulose-based nanocomposite films

ABSTRACTTwo Pakistani crop residues, bagasse (B) and wheat straw (WS), both with high ash content, were milled to <63 µm and the ISO 1 m3 explosion equipment was used to investigate flame propagation in the dispersed cloud of pulverized biomass. Their turbulent flame speed, pressure rise, and the Kst (dP/dtmaxV1/3) were measured and comparison was made with two pulverized coal samples. Minimum explosion concentration (MEC) values for B and WS were in terms of the burned dust mass equivalence ratio (Ø) 0.2Ø to 0.3Ø, which was leaner than for the coal samples. These MEC were in good comparison with those previously determined using the Hartmann explosion tube. Peak turbulent flame speeds were 3.8 m/s for B and 3.0 m/s for WS compared with 3.1–5.2 m/s for the two coal samples. The peak Kst was 103 bar m/s for bagasse and 82 bar m/s for wheat straw and the two coal samples had peak Kst of 78 and 120 bar m/s. The peak rise of pressure relative to ambient atmospheric pressure was measured to be 8.8 bar and 8.5 bar for bagasse and wheat straw, respectively. Overall the agricultural biomass and coal samples had a similar range of reactivity. Thus, these agricultural crop residues are a viable renewable fuel for co-firing with coal or as 100% biofuel operation of steam power plants.

Impact of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) straw removal from fields on soil organic carbon (SOC) is a concern. Increased animal populations and potential development of cellulosic ethanol production could increase the removal of straw from fields. This paper focuses on the effects of wheat and barley straw removal on SOC in irrigated production systems, and related the results to estimates of the minimum straw carbon inputs required to maintain soil organic carbon (MSC) from rain‐fed systems. Six studies compared SOC changes with time in irrigated systems in which wheat straw was removed or retained. These studies indicated that SOC did not decline when residues were removed. Apparently belowground biomass is supplying C to irrigated soils at a rate sufficient to maintain SOC with time. However, under rain‐fed systems, returning residue to the soil was required to maintain SOC. Estimates of MSC were obtained from nine rain‐fed wheat system studies. Averaged across all rain‐fed MSC values, 4.14 Mg more straw ha−1 was required to maintain SOC in rain‐fed than in irrigated systems. Presently, the rain‐fed based MSC values are the best information available to evaluating residue removal effects but caution should be used in applying these in irrigated systems. The results from this limited number of irrigated studies suggest that rain‐fed estimates of MSC will overestimate the MSC in irrigated systems and underestimate the available irrigated straw resources. There is need to evaluate the effect of residue removal on SOC for diverse irrigated systems.

Solid waste to biofuels and heterogeneous sorbents via pyrolysis of wheat straw in the presence of fly ash as an in situ catalyst

The chemical changes in barley-straw (BS), wheat-straw (WS) and vineyard-pruning (VP) substrates were determined during colonization of Lentinula edodes mycelia (during primordium development) in solid state fermentation. Primordia appeared 39-50 days after inoculation. VP appeared to promote early sporophore initiation. The concentration of hemicellulose in BS and VP decreased gradually from 25.5% to 15.6% and from 15.8% to 12.3%, respectively. However in WS, hemicellulose decreased from 27.2% to 9.5%. Lignin broke down continuously in BS and WS, with 31.8% and 34.4% degradation, respectively; higher than that of cellulose. During the pinning stage, the C:N ratio decreased in VP and BS, but not in WS. On all substrates the phenols decreased notably throughout the first week of mycelial growth. The time elapsed (days) to pinning was positively correlated with cellulose content (r=0.89), total sugar (r=0.85) and inversely correlated to lignin (r=−1.00) and phenol content (r=−0.55).

Grinding performance and physical properties of non-treated and steam exploded barley, canola, oat and wheat straw