Pretreatment of Whole-Crop Harvested, Ensiled Maize for Ethanol Production.

M. Thomsen; J. Holm-Nielsen; P. Oleskowicz-Popiel; A. Thomsen

Abstract  To have all-year-round available feedstock, whole-crop maize is harvested premature, when it still contains enough moisture for the anaerobic ensiling process. Silage preparation is a well-known procedure for preserving plant material. At first, this method was applied to obtain high-quality animal feed. However, it was found that such ensiled crops are very suitable for bioenergy production. Maize silage, which consists of hardly degradable lignocellulosic material, hemicellulosic material, and starch, was evaluated for its potential as a feedstock in the production of bioethanol. It was pretreated at low severity (185 °C, 15 min) giving very high glucan (∼100%) and hemicellulose recoveries (

CORN; SILAGE; BIOMASS energy industries; ETHANOL as fuel

Applied Biochemistry & Biotechnology, 2008, Vol 148, Issue 1-3, p23

0273-2289

Academic Journal

10.1007/s12010-008-8134-2