Effect Of Storage Conditions On The Dry Matter, Composition, And Respiration Concentrations Of Willow Chips
Open Access
- Author:
- Lewis, Ricky Ryan
- Graduate Program:
- Agricultural and Biological Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- March 05, 2014
- Committee Members:
- Thomas Lehman Richard, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Daniel Edward Ciolkosz, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Evelyn Ann Thomchick, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- Biofuels
Respiration
Storage systems. - Abstract:
- ABSTRACT This research aimed to bring transparency and understanding to how willow, a 2nd generation feedstock, behaved in aerobic storage conditions. The hope was to investigate the performance of stored willow in ways that are relevant to a downstream biological conversion processes. From the analysis, it can be concluded that the interaction between time and temperature have no effect on dry mass loss. When the temperature variable was isolated, concentrations were significantly different at or around temperatures close to 19°C. And when the time variable was isolated, significant differences in rates of dry mass loss were observed during the storage duration from 0 to 60 days. The interaction of time and temperature significantly impact the xylan, arabinan, mannan, and acetyl concentrations. Using a tukey’s comparison evaluation, samples treated for 30 days in 19°C temperature had statistically different xylan concentration than those samples stored at either 90 day 27°C temperature or 30 day 40°C temperatures. Arabinan concentrations of treated samples were significantly different when stored for 60 days at 40°C than for those stored at 30 days at 27°C. Mannan concentrations found in the treated samples were found to be the most statistically different for samples stored for 60 days at 27°C, than for samples stored for 30 days at 19°C. Acetyl concentrations of treated samples were found to be statistically different when stored for 90 days at 27°C than for samples stored for 60 days at 19°C. For respiration rates, interactions between temperature and time were statistically significant. Willow chips stored at lower temperatures respired at a lower rate than willow chips stored at higher temperatures. These results lead one to conclude that biological activity did occur during this experiment, suggesting that spores and fungus formed over the storage period which may pose health issue for handlers of the raw material.