Research Paper : Sunflowers for Bio-gas

In many countries renewable energies are of growing importance as alternative energy supply. In Europe and especially in Germany Bio-gas is a key element in this segment supplying already 2.1% of the German electricity production (Bio-gasportal, 2011). Bio-gas is a product of anaerobic digestion or fermentation of biodegradable materials. It is comprised primarily of methane and carbon dioxide. Bio-gas can be used for the production of heat, electricity, and directly in gas distribution networks. In addition to organic waste, an increasing amount of biomass is used to produce Bio-gas. In Germany maize is the most widely used crop for Bio-gas production with acreage of more than 500.000 ha. To improve maize accentuated crop rotations additional crops with high biomass yields are necessary. Sunflower could be one of these crops as a biomass yield of up to 20 t/ha can be achieved (Hahn and Ganssmann, 2008). For Bio-gas production a high methane yield per hectare is an important aim in energy plant breeding. The methane yield per hectare depends on the biomass yield, the amount of Bio-gas per kg organic dry matter and the methane content in the Bio-gas. Here sunflower offers an advantage as its oil is producing a high methane content in Bio-gas. However, an increasing biomass yield is associated with higher amounts of sunflower stems. And in this yield fraction, compared to maize, higher ash content and larger amounts of structural substances like ADL were found. In contrast to oil, protein and soluble carbohydrates these substances affect negatively the efficiency of energy degradation of biomass. Therefore, our objectives were to (1) investigate biomass yields of newly developed hybrids and (2) estimate genetic parameters for ADL, ash and sugar content of sunflower stems.

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