Crops
Hemp (Futura 75), maize (Arabica) and sugar beet (EB 726 (Syngenta, Basel, Switzerland), a non-commercially available cultivar with lower sugar content and higher biomass yield than normal sugar beet) were cultivated in southern Sweden (Lönnstorp, Lomma, 55 40'N 13 6'E). The crops were harvested on the following dates: hemp on 5 September 2007, maize on 29 September 2008, and sugar beet on 21 October 2008. Hemp and sugar beet were harvested manually. Maize was harvested with a maize forager set at a chopping length of 10 mm. The hemp and sugar beet tops (leaves and the neck of the root) were chopped in a garden shredder (AXT 2500 HT, Robert Bosch GmbH, Germany) into pieces about 2 cm long. The sugar beets were cut into 1 cm slices and then into squares measuring 2 to 3 cm. Part of each crop material was ensiled directly and part was frozen for later analysis. The TS and VS contents were determined in fresh crops before ensiling with and without ensiling inoculant, in fresh crops after freezing, and in ensiled crops before and after freezing. TS corrected for volatile compounds were determined in frozen ensiled crops. (Frozen samples were used since the authors were not aware of the corrected method prior to freezing the silage.)
Ensiling
Ensiling was carried out in 4.8 l plastic buckets with tightly fitting lids, normally used for food storage (NordicPack, Nykvarn, Sweden). Hemp, maize, sugar beets (beets) and sugar beet leaves including the upper part of the roots (beet tops) were ensiled separately, using four replicate buckets for each kind of crop material. A gas collection system was made by connecting Tygon tubing (VWR International, West Chester, PA, USA) to a balloon made of Transfoil El-OPET/PE (Flextrus AB, Lund, Sweden) with a hose connector (Slangservice i Uppsala AB, Uppsala, Sweden) in each lid. Silicone was used to seal the connection between the hose connector and the lid and between the bucket and the lid. The chopped plant material was sprayed with a bacterial ensiling inoculant, Lactisil Stabil (Chr. Hansen A/S, Hørsholm, Denmark). In all, 20 ml was added per kg wet plant material, according to the manufacturer's instructions (1.25 g powder in 5 l tap water). The decrease in weight was recorded by weighing the material in the buckets before and after the ensiling period. The decrease in TS was determined based on the wet weight and TS of the fresh crops with ensiling solution and of ensiled crops.
The buckets were stored at room temperature (23 to 25°C) for 60 days; after which they were stored at 4°C for a minimum of 100 days. The gas volume and the contents of methane and hydrogen were monitored during the entire ensiling period. The results from one bucket of beets and two buckets of hemp were excluded due to gas leakage.
The replicate samples of each crop material were mixed after ensiling before sampling for TS and VS determination, and for BMP tests. The mixed samples were also frozen for later analyses. TS determination and BMP tests were started immediately after sampling to minimize losses due to volatilization during sample handling. Contents of VFAs, lactic acid and ethanol were determined in silage samples that had been frozen, since this part of the study was included later. Prior to analysis, frozen silages were thawed at 8°C in buckets with tightly fitting lids.
BMP tests
BMP tests were performed as reported elsewhere [31], with the modifications described below. Fresh frozen crops, ensiled crops (not frozen) and control samples (described below) were tested in triplicate. The inoculum-to-sample ratio was 2:1 in terms of VS of the fresh frozen crops; silage was added based on the same wet weight as the fresh frozen crops. A total of 300 ml of inoculum was added to each test flask. Inoculum was collected from an anaerobic codigestion plant (Söderåsens Bioenergi, Wrams Gunnarstorp, Sweden). This inoculum is rich in macronutrients and also contains relatively high amounts of trace elements, therefore no nutrients were added. The reaction temperature was set to 38°C. The inoculum was preincubated at 38°C for 5 days prior to the start of the experiment.
The total gas volume and the content of methane [31] were monitored every day for the first week, and then every third or fourth day thereafter, until the end of the experiment. Two sets of controls were included: one set in which only the inoculum was used (to measure the indigenous methane production from the inoculum, which was subtracted from the total methane produced), and a second with microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel PH-101, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) to test the activity of the inoculum. The experiments were terminated after 30 days. The methane yield was related to the wet weight and to the TS and VS of fresh substrate with ensiling inoculant and ensiled substrate. For ensiled substrates the methane yields were also related to the VS content corrected according to Porter and Murray [5]; VS contents determined after freezing were used for this since these were the materials used for determination of the volatile compounds.
Analyses
TS and VS were determined in duplicate or quadruplicate according to standard methods [4], using samples of 13 to 240 g instead of 25 to 50 g. The TS of each substrate were measured several times, for example before and after the addition of ensiling solution, before and after freezing, and so on. In each case, the TS value corresponding to the actual material used was used for calculations. Corrected values of TS and VS were determined similarly to those presented by Porter and Murray [5]. Duplicate samples of 60 g thawed frozen silage (mixture of material from all ensiling replicates) were steeped in 300 g deionized water for 15 to 19 h at 8°C in a 500 ml flask with a lid. For beets and beet tops the material was separated into a solid and a liquid part (6% liquid for beets and 15% for beet tops) before sampling. The pH was measured after steeping and the pH of undiluted silage was calculated. Quadruplicate samples of the same material were analyzed by drying 13 to 41 g wet weight in aluminum crucibles at 100 to 105°C for 20 to 24 h, according to standard methods to determine TS [4]. Two of the quadruplicates of the dried samples were steeped in deionized water in the same proportions as for the wet silage (1:5), and the other two samples were used for VS determination according to standard methods. Steeping was performed in crucibles covered with several layers of Parafilm. Liquid samples were acidified with H2SO4 to a pH of 1 to 3 and filtrated through 0.45 μm polypropylene filters (Chromacol, Welwyn Garden City, UK). The content of C1-C6 VFAs (including isoforms of butyric and valeric acid), lactic acid, succinic acid and ethanol were determined using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) (Jasco Co., Tokyo, Japan) with an Aminex HPX-87H column (Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., Hercules, CA, USA) and a refractive index detector (Erc Inc., Huntsville, AL, USA). Sulfuric acid (5 mM) was used as the mobile phase (0.6 ml/min), and the oven temperature was 40°C. The concentration of VFAs, lactic acid and ethanol and were calculated for the wet silage according to Equations 1 and 2:
(1)
(2)
Where m1 = original wet weight related to TS added, g; m2 = water added, g; m3 = substrate TS added, g; c1 = concentration of analyzed compound, g/kg; and D = dilution factor = 5.
The TS and VS were corrected in two ways: (1) according to the volatilization coefficients for grass silage dried at 100°C presented by Porter and Murray [5]: lactic acid 0.375, total VFAs 0.892 and ethanol 1.000; and (2) the measured losses of VFAs, ethanol and lactic acid during drying (the difference between Equations 1 and 2) were added to the TS and VS values measured using standard methods.
Gas composition with respect to methane was determined using gas chromatography and a thermal conductivity detector, as described elsewhere [32]. Hydrogen was analyzed in an identical system but with argon as the carrier gas. The gas volume was measured using a graduated 100 ml gas-tight glass syringe (Fortuna, Germany) with a sample lock. Gas volumes are expressed as dry gas at 0°C, assuming a constant pressure of 1 atm.
Statistics
All statistical analyses were performed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's multiple comparison test using the statistical software Prism (Prism 5 for Mac OS X, version 5.0b; GraphPad Software Inc., La Jolla, CA, USA). The term 'significant' is only used where a statistical analysis of significance has been performed. The significance level of 5% was used throughout all statistical analyses. Values are given ± 1 SD. The SDs of weight losses during ensiling, of TS and VS determinations, of the concentrations of volatile compounds added to the corrected values of TS and VS and of tests and controls in BMP were combined according to standard statistical rules [33] to provide a SD of the final result. For linear combinations (Equation 3) the SDs were combined according to Equation 4 [33]. For multiplicative expression (Equation 5) the SDs were combined according to Equation 6 [33]:
(3)
(4)
(6)
Where σ = standard deviation; a, b, c, d = independent measured quantities; and k = constant.