The world's non-renewable energy resources continually decline and therefore there is an urgent need to seek and use any available renewable energy sources. An alternative to conventional fuels can be the usage of plant biomass for energy purposes. This particularly relates to plants with C4 photosynthesis, a large increase in biomass, low habitat requirements, and high resistance to diseases and pests. All these characteristics are met, among others, by switchgrass which in many countries occurs as a common wild plant. In agricultural production, switchgrass does not pose many agronomic problems; moreover, it is a very durable plant that can be used in one stand for even 10 years and can be grown in all soils, even contaminated ones. Effective use of switchgrass for bioethanol, biogas or syngas production provides measurable ecological benefits and in the long term offers a chance to maintain a sustainable national energy balance, given the continuously shrinking non-renewable fuel resources. Due to the multifaceted use of this plant and a number of features important from the point of view of the power generation industry, it is worth having a closer look at the possibility of spreading the cultivation of this species.
The study assesses impact of malting process duration on malting losses and quality of malts obtained from three varieties of winter wheat, i.e., Elixer, Rockefeller and Gimantis. The findings show that increased duration of the malting process (from 4 to 7 days) corresponded to greater total weight loss, with the most significant differences observed between 5-day and 6-day wheat malts. The qualitative analysis of the malts was carried out in accordance with EBC methodology. The assessments showed that the 5-day long malting process applied to the relevant wheat varieties resulted in production of high-quality malt with optimum malting losses observed in the case of Elixer and Rockefeller varieties. Slightly higher malting losses were identified in the case of Gimantis, and the malt obtained from this variety had very high contents of soluble protein (on average 5.34% d.m.) and Kolbach Index (average of 50.49%), which reflects high proteolytic activity during the grain malting process and a need to modify the malting process for this variety.
A b s t r a c t An experiment, conducted over the period [2008][2009][2010], evaluated the effect of tillage system on the occurrence and species composition of anthropophytes in winter wheat, maize and spring wheat. Regardless of crop plant and tillage system, anthropophytes (73.9%), represented by archaeophytes and kenophytes, were the main component of the flora in the crops studied, whereas apophytes accounted for the remaining 26.1%. Most archaeophytes (13 species) were found in the spring wheat crop under no-tillage, while their lowest number (6 species) occurred in the spring wheat crop under conventional tillage. The only kenophyte, Conyza canadensis, was found to occur in the spring wheat and maize crops in the no-tillage system. The following taxa were dominant species among archeophytes: Geranium pusillum, Anthemis arvensis, and Viola arvensis (regardless of tillage system and crop plant), Anthemis arvensis (in spring wheat -conventional tillage), Echinochloa crus-galli and Setaria glauca (in maize -reduced tillage and no-tillage), Chenopodium album (in maize -no-tillage) as well as Apera spica-venti, Anthemis arvensis and Papaver rhoeas (in winter wheat -no-tillage).
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