GA-UPM presented LIFE BiomassC+ at EUBCE 2019

The progress on the potential of Typha domingensis for biomass made by the Agro-Energy Group of the UPM (GA-UPM) was presented at the 27th European Biomass Conference & Exhibition (EUBCE 2019) held in Lisbon (Portugal), 27-30th May 2019, which programme was coordinated by the European Commission Joint Research Center. The EUBCE has become a leading event for the biomass and bioenergy sectors, with about 1600 delegates from approximately 80 countries, and 1105 scientific contributions in the 2019 edition. The GA-UPM, a partner in the Life Biomass C+ project, contributed with two articles on Typha domingensis. The topic of the session assigned to both articles were the one titled ‘Biomass crops for bioenergy, biomaterials and ecosystem services’ (session 1BV.8), which included 28 scientific contributions signed by approximately 100 authors. In the dedicated time slot, GA-UPM presenters had the opportunity to explain the aim and key results obtained from the work, interact with attendees and answer to all questions raised.  Articles will be published soon in the 2019 edition of the Proceedings of European Biomass Conference & Exhibition; Digital Object Identifier (doi) will be assigned to each article to provide their specific location on the web. Furthermore, the articles will be indexed in Scopus. 

The first article was titled ‘Assessing key parameters of productivity for a non-land-dependent system of biomass production’ and the presentation was given by Prof. Curt. The aim of the work was to study the performance of this plant species as a green floating filter at two nutrient levels over a season. Datasets were built for the proof-of-concept undertaken in the Life Biomass C+ project. Results highlighted that the potential of GFFs for bioethanol and biobased products is high, but it clearly relies on the nutrient water level and the harvest date.

The other article was titled ‘Effects of nitrogen nutrition on biomass production of Typha domingensis (Pers.) Steudel to bioethanol production’ and it was presented by Ms. M. Carhuancho. The experiment was developed in the framework of a PhD grant by the National Program of Scholarships and Educational Loan (PRONABEC) of the Ministry of Education of Peru. The aim of the work presented at the EUBCE 2019 was to determine the effect of nitrogen nutrition on biomass production of plantlets of different ecotypes when grown hydroponically. Results showed that increasing N levels resulted in a significantly increase of biomass production. In the experimental conditions of this work, the response of the plantlets differed among the studied ecotypes.