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Biomass Production

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Renewable Energy Systems

Definition of the Subject

The energy of sunlight reaching the earth exceeds global human energy consumption by a factor of several thousand. Plants are equipped with an intrinsic energy conversion system – photosynthesis – allowing them to utilize sun energy directly for the production of biomass. Human mankind has coevolved and profited from this energy conversion system by placing it at the base of its food production chain and by starting the utilization of firewood as its first energy source. Enormous attempts have been made by mankind to optimize food production from plants via targeted agronomical improvements, such as selection of most productive crop species, increasing agronomical output via the measures of the green revolution and by conventional and marker-assisted plant breeding. In contrast to this, practically no attempts have been made to optimize the use of...

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Abbreviations

Biomass:

Material derived from recent living organisms.

Bioenergy:

Energy obtained from fuels derived from biomass.

Bioenergy crops:

Crops for the production of bioenergy.

Marker-assisted selection (MAS):

An indirect selection process in plant breeding. A trait of interest (e.g., shoot biomass) is selected based on a molecular marker (see “molecular marker”), which is linked to the trait.

Molecular marker:

Molecular markers are identifiable DNA sequences and act as landmarks in the genome. They are inherited by the standard laws of inheritance from one generation to the next.

Trait:

A genetically determined characteristic or condition. Traits can result from the activity of one single gene or an interaction of the activity of several genes (e.g., shoot biomass is a so-called quantitative trait).

Autotrophic:

Autotrophic organisms are able to synthesize organic substances from inorganic substances using either light or chemical energy as energy source. These organic molecules are then used to carry out biological functions including cell growth. Autotrophs such as green plants, algae, and certain bacteria are the starting point of the food chain.

Heterotrophic:

Heterotrophic organisms depend on the organic compounds synthesized by autotrophs and utilize these organic compounds as food. Heterotrophs are animals, fungi, most of the bacteria and protozoa.

Chloroplast:

Chloroplasts are cell organelles of plant cells in which photosynthesis takes place.

Enzyme:

Proteins or protein complexes that catalyze a biochemical reaction.

Photosynthetic efficiency:

The fraction of incident solar energy reaching the surface of the plant that is converted into chemical energy in the form of carbohydrates.

Stomata:

Tiny pores of the plant surface necessary for transpiration and gas exchange with the surrounding air; their opening and closing is controlled by various factors such as plant hormones and the water status of the plant.

C3-plants:

C3-plants use the enzyme Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphat-carboxylase/-oxygenase (RuBisCO) to make a three-carbon compound as the first stable product of photosynthesis. Carbon losses through photorespiration are high in contrast to C4- and CAM plants.

C4-plants:

C4-plants possess biochemical and anatomical mechanisms to raise the intercellular carbon dioxide concentration at the site of fixation and thus reduce carbon losses by photorespiration.

Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) plants:

CAM plants fix CO2 during the night, store CO2 as a component of the compound malic acid, and release it from malic acid during the day. Then it is concentrated around and utilized by the enzyme RuBisCO, thereby increasing the efficiency of photosynthesis. The CAM pathway allows plants to remain their stomata shut during the day, which reduces evotranspiration and allows plants to grow in arid climate.

Photorespiration:

Photorespiration is a very complex side reaction of the main enzyme of photosynthesis (RuBisCO). The catalytic center of RuBisCO is able to bind CO2 or O2 in general the enzyme favors CO2, but if the level of O2 is increasing, which occur if stomata are closed – for example, on hot days to avoid evaporation – the competition between CO2 and O2 is increased and more O2 will bound to the enzyme. Photorespiration leads to a net loss of carbon and reduce the photosynthetic efficiency.

Water use efficiency (WUE):

The ratio of photosynthetic CO2 assimilation and evaporation.

Monocotyledonous plants:

In the traditional plant taxonomic system, monocotyledonous plants, or monocots, are one of the two major groups of flowering plants the other one are the dicotyledonous plants, or dicots. Most members of the monocots have one cotyledon or embryonic leaf, in their seeds, parallel veins, and floral organs arranged in cycles of three.

Dicotyledonous:

The second major group of flowering plants – see also Monocotyledonous plants. Members are characterized by two embryonic leaves in their seeds, reticulate veins and floral organs arranged in cycles of four or five.

Harvest index:

The ratio of grain yield to total plant mass.

Ideotype:

Ideotypes are defined by breeders, specifying the optimal plant for a particular purpose.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBG-2: Plant Science, Forschungszentrum Jülich, IBG-2: Plant Sciences, 52425, Jülich, Germany

    Michaela Ernst, Achim Walter & Ulrich Schurr

  2. ETH Zürich, Institute of Plant, Animal and Agroecosystem Sciences, Professorship of Crop Science, Universitaetsstrasse 2, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Achim Walter

Authors
  1. Michaela Ernst
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  2. Achim Walter
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  3. Ulrich Schurr
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ulrich Schurr .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. German Biomass Research Centre, Leipzig, Germany

    Martin Kaltschmitt

  2. Institute of Environmental Technology and Energy Economics, Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany

    Martin Kaltschmitt

  3. Earth Engineering Center, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Nickolas J. Themelis

  4. Ormat Technologies, Inc., Reno, NV, USA

    Lucien Y. Bronicki

  5. Royal Institute of Technology, Electric Power Systems, Stockholm, Sweden

    Lennart Söder

  6. Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, School of Ocean And Earth Science And Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USA

    Luis A. Vega

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Ernst, M., Walter, A., Schurr, U. (2013). Biomass Production . In: Kaltschmitt, M., Themelis, N.J., Bronicki, L.Y., Söder, L., Vega, L.A. (eds) Renewable Energy Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5820-3_242

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