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Publications

NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.

2024

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Abstract

Agricultural sustainability is threatened by both water deficit and water excess, especially at the presence of extreme meteorological events resulting from climate change. However, there has been lack of demonstrations on management options with long-term values for agricultural adaptation to runoff. Using 20 years of monitoring data (1993–2012) for two experimental fields in the Canadian Prairies as a case study, we quantified the effects of rainfall characteristics, crop type and biomass, and tillage on growing-season runoff generation using regression analyses and thereafter scenario comparisons. With growing-season gross rainfall ranging between 183 and 456 mm, runoff responses varied between 0 and 59 mm. Over the 20-year study period, 70%–74 % of the growing season runoff was generated by rainfall events >100 mm. Compared to high-intensity tillage, long-term conservation tillage reduced both overall runoff and runoff in large events likely by improving water infiltration. Under both tillage methods, growing-season runoff significantly increased with increasing rainfall but decreased with increasing biomass (R2 range: 0.40–0.58; p range: 0.0007–0.02). At the event level, the rainfall-runoff relationship followed a piecewise regression model (Cd ¼ 0.82; p

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Abstract

Exploring the complex mechanism of anaerobic digestion with hydrothermal pretreatment (HTAD) for biomass efficiently and optimising the reaction conditions are critical to improving the performance of methane production. This study used H2O automated machine learning (AutoML) for comprehensive prediction, analysis, and targeted optimization of the HTAD system. An IterativeImputer system for data filling was constructed. The comparison of three basic regressors showed that random forest performed optimally for filling (R2 > 0.95). The gradient boosting machine (GBM) model was searched by H2O AutoML to show optimal performance in prediction (R2 > 0.96). The software was developed based on the GBM model, and two prediction schemes were devised. The generalization error of the software was less than 10%. The Shapley Additive exPlanations value showed that solid to liquid ratio, hydrothermal pretreatment (HT) temperature, and particle size have greater potential for improving cumulative methane production (CMP). A Bayesian-HTAD optimization strategy was devised, using the Bayesian optimization to directionally optimize the reaction conditions, and performing experiments to validate the results. The experimental results showed that the CMP was significantly improved by 51.63%. Compared to the response surface methodology, the Bayesian optimization relatively achieved a 2.21–2.50 times greater effect. Mechanism analyses targeting the experiments showed that HT was conducive to improving the relative abundance of Sphaerochaeta, Methanosaeta, and Methanosarcina. This research achieved accurate prediction and targeted optimization for the HTAD system and proposed multiple filling, prediction, and optimization strategies, which are expected to provide an AutoML optimization paradigm for anaerobic digestion in the future.

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Abstract

The use of bio-based composites to enhance the methane production in anaerobic digestion has attracted considerable attention. Nevertheless, the study of electron transfer mechanisms and the applications of biochar/MnO2 (MBC) in complex systems remains largely unexplored. Biochar composited with MnO2 at 10:1 mass ratio (MBC10) increased the content of volatile fatty acids by 9.09 % during acidogenic phase. During the methanogenic experiments using acetate, cumulative methane production (CMP) rose by 5.83 %, and in the methanogenic experiments using food waste, CMP increased by 24.32 %. Microbial community analysis indicated an enrichment of Syntrophomonas, Bacilli, and Methanosaetaceae in the MBC10 group. This enrichment occurred mainly due to the redox capability of MnO2 enhancing MBC capacitance, thereby facilitating microbial electron transfer processes. Additionally, under 2 g/L ammonia nitrogen concentration and 30 g/L organic load, the CMP of MBC10 increased by 12.74 % and 9.44 %, respectively, compared to the BC600 group. This study illuminates MBC's electron transfer mechanisms and applications, facilitating its wider practical adoption and fostering future innovations.

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Abstract

Anaerobic digestion (AD), as a crucial technology for organic waste resource recovery, faces the challenge of low efficiency in converting high-load organic substance into biogas. In this study, high-load AD system with food waste and excess sludge as co-substrates was constructed. The effect and mechanism of carbon quantum dots (CQD) derived from straw in promoting the performance of AD systems have been studied. The oxidation pretreatment of straw with H2O2 and acetic acid increased the yield of hydrothermal synthesis CQD to approximately 40%. The effect of different CQD on CH4 yield performance was further explored. The cumulative CH4 yield performance of the fermenter was improved after adding CQD. The CQD synthesized from pretreated straw and the nitrogen-doped CQD synthesized using Chlorella as the nitrogen source showed competitive promotion performance, increasing cumulative CH4 yield by 17.71% and 8.87%, respectively. These CQD can effectively accelerate the degradation of dissolved organic matter and thus improve the CH4 yield performance, with the most significant effect of CQD synthesized from pretreated straw. Electrochemical analysis and the correlation analysis between microorganisms and performance parameters showed that these CQD established an electron conductive network to enhance the electron transfer of the system. This well conductive conditions enriched hydrogenotrophic methanogenic (Methanosarcina), electroactive bacteria (Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1), and hydrolytic-acidifying bacteria (norank_f__Bacteroidetes_vadinHA17). This study significantly enhanced the yield of straw-derived CQD through green methods, and deeply revealed the potential promoting mechanisms of biomass-derived CQD by investigating the correlation between system performance and microorganisms in high-load AD systems.