Study of the efficiency of growing maize for silage for processing into biogas and digestate

Abstract

Given the growing area of maize cultivation in Ukraine and globally, research into the possibilities of using silage as a component of biogas plants to produce biogas as an alternative fuel and digestate as a bio-organic fertiliser is of high relevance and production necessity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the chemical composition of green mass of maize and its changes depending on the growing season for its use in biogas production. Field, laboratory, laboratory-field, and statistical research methods were used in the study. The findings of this study showed that the quality of maize silage depends on soil and climatic conditions, elements of growing technology, genetic characteristics of a particular hybrid, its maturity group, harvesting time, etc. The genetic characteristics of the hybrid had the greatest influence on the dry matter content, specifically, the mid-early hybrid Amaros stood out in terms of dry matter content on 10-14 August 2020 (26.61%). The highest crude fibre content was observed in the hybrid P9170 – 6.32% and 26.86%, respectively, in natural and absolutely dry matter. This hybrid belongs to the mid-season ripeness group. The shift in the harvesting time of the green mass of the maize hybrids under study also affected the characteristics of the chemical composition and the carbohydrate-lignin complex of the green mass of the maize hybrids under study. The yield of green mass of maize hybrids substantially depended on the maturity group of maize hybrids and was highest in the mid-season maize hybrids Burito – 78.1 t/ha and P9170 – 73.1 t/ha, while in the group of mid-early hybrids it was 55.3 t/ha and 68.9 t/ha in Amaros and P9071. Hybrids with a long growing season have higher green mass yields and dry matter yields per unit area. The findings can be used by farms that grow silage maize and have the opportunity to use the vegetative mass as a component of biogas plants for biogas production and digestate production