Giant brown kelp

Analysis Pure ceUulos e Pine wood Kentuck y bluegrass Giant brown kelp Feedlo t manur e Urban refuse Primary sewage sludge Reed sedge peat Illinois bituminous coal... 

Typical methane yields and volatile soHds reductions observed under standard high rate conditions are shown in Table 12. Longer detention times will increase the values of these parameters, eg, a methane yield of 0.284 m at normal conditions /kg VS added (4.79 SCF /lb VS added) and volatile soHds reduction of 53.9% for giant brown kelp at a detention time of 18 days instead of the corresponding values of 0.229 and 43.7 at 12 days under standard high rate conditions. However, improvements might be desirable in the reverse direction, ie, at shorter detention times. 

Still another possibiUty is a marine biomass plantation such as that envisaged for giant brown kelp grown off the California coast and conversion of the kelp to methane in a system similar to that shown in Figure 19. The location of the SNG plant could be either on a floating platform near the kelp growth area or located on shore, in which case the biomass or fuel transport requirements would be different. 

Pure cellulose Pine wood Kentucky bluegrass Giant brown kelp Water hyacinth Feedlot manure RDF Primary biosolids Reed sedge peat Bituminous coal ... 

Typical organic components in representative, mature biomass species are shown in Table 3.9 along with the corresponding ash contents. With few exceptions, the order of abundance of the major organic components in whole-plant samples of terrestrial biomass is celluloses, hemicelluloses, lignins, and proteins. Aquatic biomass does not appear to follow this trend. The cellulosic components are often much lower in concentration than the hemicelluloses as illustrated by the data for water hyacinth. Other carbohydrates and derivatives are dominant in species such as giant brown kelp to almost complete exclusion of the celluloses. The hemicelluloses and lignins have not been found in this species. 

Name Giant brown kelp Water hyacinth Bermuda grass Poplar Sycamore Pine RDF... 

A theoretical model of the combustion of biomass is illustrated by the complete oxidation of giant brown kelp. Note that kelp, for which complete analytical data were available, is used here simply to illustrate the utility of the model, which is applicable to all biomass species. Based on the empirical formula derived from the elemental analysis of dry kelp at an assumed molecular weight of 100, the combustion stoichiometry is... 

Parameter Primary biosolids Primary activated biosolids RDF-biosolids blend Biomass-waste blend Coastal Bermuda grass Kentucky bluegrass Giant brown kelp Water hyacinth... 

Component Coastal Bermuda grass Giant brown kelp Biomass-waste blend ... 

Estimates of the amounts of anchored giant brown kelp (Eig. 12.8) harvested off the California Coast indicated an energy yield of 7 quad/year (Szetela et al, 1974), or about 32% of natural gas consumption (21.7 quad) at that time. 

FIGURE 12.8 Diagram of young adult giant brown kelp plant (Macrocystis pyrifera). From Leese (1976). 

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