Changes in composition, cellulose degradability and biochemical methane potential of Miscanthus species during the growing season.

The composition, cellulose degradability and biochemical methane potential (BMP) of M. sinensis , M. floridulus , Miscanthus × giganteus and M. lutarioriparius were investigated concomitantly at different growth/harvest times during their growing season. For all the four species, there was only a slight change in the compositional content. Meanwhile there was a huge change in the BMP values. At the growth time of 60 days the BMPs ranged from 247.1 to 266.5 ml g −1 VS. As growth time was prolonged, the BMPs decreased by 11–35%. For each species, the BMP was positively correlated to the cellulose degradability with the correlation coefficients (R 2 ) ranging from 0.8055 to 0.9925. This suggests that besides the biomass yield, it is justifiable to consider cellulose degradability when selecting the suitable harvest time for biofuels production from Miscanthus , especially in tropical and subtropical regions where Miscanthus can be harvested twice or more within a year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]