Abstract
Giant reed (Arundo donax L.) is a perennial, herbaceous grass, it has been spread all over the world from continent to tropical conditions by human activities. In continental climate, especially Hungary, it has been considered as ornamental species, due to its decorative appearance, striped variants’ colour of leaves, long growing season and low maintenance requirements. It does not produced viable seeds, so it can be propagated vegetative ways by rhizomes or stem cuttings and by in vitro biotechnology methods. Because of its growth habits and good adaptation capability, it has been considered invasive weed primarily in coastal regions in warmer climate areas. In the previous century, giant reed produced for paper/cellulose/viscose production, woodwind musical instruments, stakes for plants or fishing rods etc. Over the last few decades, it has been produced for bioenergy purposes (bioethanol, biogas, direct combustion) or utilize as chemical basic compounds or construction materials. It has been considered a dedicated promising biomass crops thanks to high biomass production, high energy balance of cultivation and adaptability of different kind of soils and conditions. The objective of the present paper is to overview the most significance literature data on giant reed production and utilization, compare to own experimental data and economic calculations and to determine some critical factors, advantages and disadvantages of giant reed production compare to other biomass species.
Highlights
The energy consumption of the global population is still depends on fossil fuels, in spite of the rapidly increasing role of renewable energies, environmental problems and climate policies
In case of higher value added products from giant reed and other species from Experimental Garden of Future Biomass Crops at University of Debrecen could produce leaf protein concentrate (LPC) based on Ereky’s process (Fári & Popp, 2016) and combined with the coagulation technique was related to patent application
The growing importance and interest of giant reed can be obviously characterized by literature databases
Summary
The energy consumption of the global population is still depends on fossil fuels, in spite of the rapidly increasing role of renewable energies, environmental problems and climate policies. The annual rate of biomass utilization is less than other renewable resources (especially sun or wind), so it should be used the biological resources more effectively to ensure food and energy demands of a growing population (WBA, 2017). Globally the biomass resources utilize as heat or electricity production, it has been produced biofuels for transportation, bioplastic and biobased chemicals etc. Hemicellulose, lignin and leaf proteins are valuable components of green biomass to produce higher value added new products such as feed and food ingredients, medicine and health promoters (Lange & Lindeman, 2016). The soybean is one of the most important protein sources of animal husbandry, but by fractionation of green biomass leaves can be produce valuable leaf protein concentrate. Dedicated plants with large root system can restore the quality of soils and result more environmentally friendly production, because of less soil cultivation intervention contribute the reduction of CO2 emission (Fári et al, 2014)
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