Table Of ContentBIOMASS – DETECTION,
PRODUCTION AND USAGE
Edited by Darko Matovic
Biomass – Detection, Production and Usage
Edited by Darko Matovic
Published by InTech
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Copyright © 2011 InTech
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First published August, 2011
Printed in Croatia
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Biomass – Detection, Production and Usage, Edited by Darko Matovic
p. cm.
ISBN 978-953-307-492-4
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Contents
Preface IX
Part 1 Detection 1
Chapter 1 Lidar for Biomass Estimation 3
Yashar Fallah Vazirabad and Mahmut Onur Karslioglu
Chapter 2 Field Measurements of Canopy Spectra
for Biomass Assessment of Small-Grain Cereals 27
Conxita Royo and Dolors Villegas
Chapter 3 SAR and Optical Images for Forest Biomass Estimation 53
Jalal Amini and Josaphat Tetuko Sri Sumantyo
Chapter 4 Detection of Ammonia-oxidizing Bacteria (AOB)
in the Biofilm and Suspended Growth Biomass of Fully-
and Partially-packed Biological Aerated Filters 75
Fatihah Suja‘
Chapter 5 A Combination of Phenotype MicroArrayTM Technology
with the ATP Assay Determines the Nutritional
Dependence of Escherichia coli Biofilm Biomass 93
Preeti Sule, Shelley M. Horne and Birgit M. Prüß
Chapter 6 Changes in Fungal and Bacterial Diversity During
Vermicomposting of Industrial Sludge and Poultry
Manure Mixture: Detecting the Mechanism
of Plant Growth Promotion by Vermicompost 113
Prabhat Pramanik, Sang Yoon Kim and Pil Joo Kim
Chapter 7 Genetic and Functional Diversities
of Microbial Communities in Amazonian Soils
Under Different Land Uses and Cultivation 125
Karina Cenciani, Andre Mancebo Mazzetto,
Daniel Renato Lammel, Felipe Jose Fracetto,
Giselle Gomes Monteiro Fracetto, Leidivan Frazao,
Carlos Cerri and Brigitte Feigl
VI Contents
Chapter 8 Temporal Changes in the Harvest
of the Brown Algae Macrocystis pyrifera (Giant Kelp)
along the Mexican Pacific Coast 147
Margarita Casas-Valdez, Elisa Serviere-Zaragoza
and Daniel Lluch-Belda
Part 2 Production 161
Chapter 9 Supplying Biomass for Small Scale Energy Production 163
Tord Johansson
Chapter 10 Production of Unique Naturally Immobilized Starter:
A Fractional Factorial Design Approach Towards
the Bioprocess Parameters Evaluation 185
Andreja Gorsek and Marko Tramsek
Chapter 11 Recent Advances in Yeast Biomass Production 201
Rocío Gómez-Pastor, Roberto Pérez-Torrado,
Elena Garre and Emilia Matallana
Chapter 12 Biomass Alteration of Earthworm in
the Organic Waste-Contaminated Soil 223
Young-Eun Na, Hea-Son Bang, Soon-Il Kim and Young-Joon Ahn
Chapter 13 Plant Biomass Productivity
Under Abiotic Stresses in SAT Agriculture 247
L. Krishnamurthy, M. Zaman-Allah, R. Purushothaman,
M. Irshad Ahmed and V. Vadez
Chapter 14 Aerobic Membrane Bioreactor
for Wastewater Treatment –
Performance Under Substrate-Limited Conditions 265
Sebastián Delgado, Rafael Villarroel,
Enrique González and Miriam Morales
Chapter 15 Rangeland Productivity and Improvement
Potential in Highlands of Balochistan, Pakistan 289
Sarfraz Ahmad and Muhammad Islam
Chapter 16 Effects of Protected Environments
on Plant Biometrics Parameters 305
Edilson Costa, Paulo Ademar Martins Leal
and Carolina de Arruda Queiróz
Chapter 17 Quality and Selected Metals Content of Spring Wheat
(Triticum aestivum L.) Grain and Biomass After the
Treatment with Brassinosteroids During Cultivation 321
Jaromír Lachman, Milan Kroutil and Ladislav Kohout
Contents VII
Chapter 18 Production of Enriched Biomass by Carotenogenic
Yeasts - Application of Whole-Cell Yeast Biomass to
Production of Pigments and Other Lipid Compounds 345
Ivana Marova, Milan Certik and Emilia Breierova
Part 3 Usage 385
Chapter 19 Biomass Burning in South America:
Transport Patterns and Impacts 387
Ana Graciela Ulke, Karla María Longo and Saulo Ribeiro de Freitas
Chapter 20 The Chemistry Behind the Use of Agricultural
Biomass as Sorbent for Toxic Metal Ions: pH Influence,
Binding Groups, and Complexation Equilibria 409
Valeria M. Nurchi and Isabel Villaescusa
Chapter 21 Recycling of Phosphorus Resources in Agricultural Areas
Using Woody Biomass and Biogenic Iron Oxides 425
Ikuo Takeda
Chapter 22 Sweet Sorghum: Salt Tolerance
and High Biomass Sugar Crop 441
A. Almodares, M. R. Hadi and Z. Akhavan Kharazian
Chapter 23 From a Pollutant Byproduct to a Feed Ingredient 461
Elisa Helena Giglio Ponsano, Leandro Kanamaru Franco de Lima
and Ane Pamela Capucci Torres
Chapter 24 The Influence of Intercrops Biomass
and Barley Straw on Yield
and Quality of Edible Potato Tubers 473
Anna Płaza, Feliks Ceglarek,
Danuta Buraczyńska and Milena Anna Królikowska
Preface
Biomass has been an intimate companion of humans from the dawn of civilization to
the present. Its use as food, energy source, body cover and as construction material
established the key areas of biomass usage that extend to this day. With the emergence
of agriculture the soil productivity increased dramatically, especially with cultivation
of new plant varieties and with emergence of intensive soil fertilization. In that
context, the emergence and use of fossil fuels for energy and raw material in chemical
industry is but a flick on the human history horizon. The amount of energy that
humans used in the last two decades is roughly equal to the total amount of energy in
the past. This enormous increase of energy use was made possible by extensive
depletion of fossil reserves and is clearly unsustainable. Does it mean that once these
reserves are depleted the amount of energy available to humans will be similar to the
pre-fossil fuel era? Not necessarily. Currently, the total energy used by humanity
amounts to 1/5500 fraction of the total solar energy incident on earth. In theory,
significant percentage of that energy can be used for human needs, before it is let to
complete the energy flow cycle (i.e. to be dissipated to space). Some of it can be
harnessed and used as a direct solar energy, but other pathways uses natural
photosynthesis to create biomass that can be seen as a form of chemically stored solar
energy. Of course, biomass is also food and this brings about the key trade-off in
biomass usage: the food vs. fuel controversy. Given these two primary uses of biomass
the proper resolution of this tradeoff is essential for acceptable and beneficial biomass
usage in the future. The glaring example of biomass for energy misuse is ethanol
production from corn, a relatively inefficient conversion process that is also in a direct
collision course with the corn as food pathway. Still, in 2009, about 15% of world corn
production was converted into ethanol fuel. More subtle examples emerge when an
inedible biomass is the energy source, but its production still competes with food
supply chain. Recent world food price hikes, especially in 2008 have been blamed
partly on diversion of food staples towards biomass fuel production. As humanity
currently uses or appropriates (through deforestation and land use change) about 40%
of land productive capacity, the accurate account of all existing and potential biomass
usage pathways is critical for charting the way forward at the global scale, and in
different regions.
X Preface
Given the complexities of biomass as a source of multiple end products, food included,
this volume sheds new light to the whole spectrum of biomass related topics by
highlighting the new and reviewing the existing methods of its detection, production
and usage. We hope that the readers will find valuable information and exciting new
material in its chapters.
Since biomass means so many things to so many people, it is no wonder that the
original book title, Remote Sensing of Biomass has attracted a wide range of papers,
many of them very remote from the remote sensing theme. If there were few odd
submissions that could not fit the theme at all, the choice would be simple. Check the
quality of the paper and if it is good, suggest to the authors that it would be better to
submit it elsewhere. InTech publishing is a wonderful open source publisher that
published more than 180 volumes in 2010 alone, on such diverse topics as Virtual
Reality, Biomedical Imaging or Globalization. Thus, an odd author who went astray
could be stirred towards more suitable publication. And indeed, there were few that
fell into that category. However, majority of submissions had a broad linkage to
biomass, but not to its remote sensing. The wide range of themes, all related to
biomass, prompted us to reconsider if the originally envisioned scope was perhaps
understood by biologists and food scientists differently than by engineers? Is the
simple act of examining biomass via a microscope a form of remote sensing? Is an
indirect inference about details of physiological or genetic makeup of a subject
biomass another form of remote sensing as well? Questions like these, and the desire
to better reflect the scope and coverage of the book chapters led us to a new title,
Biomass - Detection, Production and Usage. It reflects an even balance between these
three areas of the biomass science and practice.
Dr. Darko Matovic
Queen's University, Kingston,
Canada
