Key impediments to increased corn yield and quality in the southeastern US coastal plain region are damage by ear-feeding insects and aflatoxin contamination caused by infection of Aspergillus flavus. Key ear-feeding insects are corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea, fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda, maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais, and brown stink bug, Euschistus servus. In 2006 and 2007, aflatox...

Large scale biofuel production will be possible only if significant quantities of biomass feedstock can be stored, transported, and processed in an economic and sustainable manner. Torrefaction has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of transportation, storage, and downstream processing through the improvement of physical and chemical characteristics of biomass. The main objective of...

this experiment was carried out to study the effects of corn and green gram intercropping on yield and some quality characteristics of forage at agricultural research station of gorgan during summer 2006 & 2007. the experimental design was a randomized complete block design (rcbd) with twelve treatments and four replications. a local green gram and corn single cross 550 were the crops used in t...

Fuel-related measures and modernization of small-scale combustion units has become the focus attention in renewable heat generation sector, as a means to promote local biomass utilization fuel-flexibility while meeting strict environmental legislative requirements. With aim mitigate total particulate matter emissions ash-associated problems characteristic crop residue combustion, (1) corn cob p...

Accurate trace-metal and strontium-isotope analyses of archaeological corn cobs require that metal contaminants be removed prior to chemical analysis. Archaeological cobs are often coated with construction debris, dust, or soilwhich containsmineral particles. In addition,most archaeological cobs are partially or completely burned and the burned parts incorporatemineral debris in their hardened ...

Sustainable building should at least be affordable and carbon neutral. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is a region struggling with housing affordability. Residential buildings are often constructed using block-based materials. These increasingly produced ordinary Portland cement (PC), which has high footprint. Using alternative Supplementary Cementitious Materials (SCMs) for block production might red...

BACKGROUND Corn stover composition changes considerably throughout the growing season and also varies between the various fractions of the plant. These differences can impact optimal pretreatment conditions, enzymatic digestibility and maximum achievable sugar yields in the process of converting lignocellulosics to ethanol. The goal of this project was to determine which combination of corn sto...

Introduction Biomass energy has received much attention in recent years. We now use about one third of the U.S. corn crop for biofuels. More recently, attention has focused on cellulosic resources—dedicated energy crops like switchgrass, miscanthus, and corn stover. Now the question has been raised concerning the economics of collecting just the corn cobs for energy instead of the stover. This ...