A2B—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, July 16,1983
Bleach ‘digests’
PEORIA, 111. Peroxide, a
common bleach, predigests weeds
and stems of crop plants in
laboratory studies here and frees
the components for possible use as
feed and chemical raw materials,
says a U.S. Department of
Agriculture biochemist.
Michael Gould says plant stems,
stalks, straws, husks, hulls, cobs
and wood contain more energy
than seeds, but are little used for
feed and chemical products
because they are hard to digest. To
free components that contain
energy-yielding sugars, be treats
plant parts 12 hours at room
temperature with a solution of
hydrogen peroxide that is about as
alkaline as strong soap (pH 11.5).
This peroxide is a common an
tiseptic as well as a bleach.
The treatment is like a ten
derizing process. It frees com
ponents in the plant parts for
digestion by animals and
microorganisms and for chemical
reactions. “Changes in com
position are accompanied by
dramatic changes in physical
properties,” Gould says. '‘During
the wheat straw treatment, for
instance, chopped straw disin
tegrated into highly absorbent
fibers with a pulp-like con
sistency.” He also treated com
stalks, husks and cobs, steins of
soybeans and foxtail, a weed
grass, kenaf stalks and oak wood
shavings in the Agricultural
Research Service studies.
“Chemical energy from the
peroxide makes the reaction go at
room temperature,” Gould says. It
saves the cost of fuel for heating.
The treatment uses 1 part of
hydrogen peroxide for about 4
parts of straw, a proportion that
might be too costly in an industrial
scale process, depending upon the
value of the feed and industrial
raw materials produced. “Fur
thermore,” Gould says, “con
tinuing studies may lead to ways to
lower the peroxide requirement
significantly.”
This first study at the Northern
Regional Research Center was
designed not to develop an in
dustrial process but to learn more
about the plant components,
cellulose, lignin and henucellulose,
and how to get them out of the
plant materials. Gould says a
process “may be years in the
future and with many variations
from the present treatment,
depending upon what we learn in
further research. Right now, for
example, we are studying how the
LONG’S CORRUGIASS BINS
FOR HIGH MOISTUr GRAIN STORAGE
Long incorporates the strength
of corrugated steel with the protec
tive coating of glass to produce the
most affordable, glass-lined, oxy
gen limiting storage system for
high moisture grain that you can
buy. This feed system allows live
stock growers to carry more ani
mals on the same number of acres.
OXYGEN LIMITING
SYSTEM PROTECTS FBD
AND CONTROLS THE
FERMENTATION PROCESS
Breather baj
suspended in'
roof of the bin
provide an
oxygen limitin;
environment
for the feed.
This oxygen
limiting feature
controls the
amount of
fermentation that takes place within
the bin. Feed stays fresh longer,
feed losses are cut—both quality
and quantity, and the need for dry
ing equipment and heater fuel is
eliminated.
i Now Available From: "{
UN6S
weeds & stems into feed
peroxide changes the plant
materials. We think it may react
primarily with lignin to yield
oxygen and oxidized lignin
fragments. These new products
may have potential as chemical
raw materials.”
Feeding trials of treated crop
residues have started in
cooperation with George C. Fahey,
Jr., animal scientist at the
University of Illinois. In the first
studies, cattle appear to digest
almost all of a treated straw
product, primarily cellulose, in 24
hours, ITiey digest less than half of
untreated straw even in 72 hours.
“Complete use of the cellulose,
hemicellulose and lignin from
agricultural residues to produce
cattle feed, simple sugars, alcohol
and feedstock chemicals,” Gould
says, “would be a positive factor in
the overall economics of a com
mercial peroxide process.”
A commercial process could aid
soil conservation, he says. It could
furnish a market for grass or other
soil-protecting crops planted in
stead of row crops or cultivated
crops on hillsides and strip-mined
land.
Cellulose is a fibrous substance
Now available to farmers in this area..
Watsontown, PA 17777
PH: 717-538-2591
Ask About Our Financing
Program
making up mosi ot plant cell walls
and plant products such as paper,
cotton and linen. Gould says it is a
source of the same glucose sugar
obtained now from corn starch for
making ethyl alcohol. If cellulose
in crop residues can be made more
digestible, it might be fed to cattle
for producing meat and milk for
people.
Hemicellulose is another petrochemicals, Gould says,
component of plant cell walls. It is ' Lignin gives strength to plant
the source of another sugar, steins and protects the cellulose
xylose, which can be converted to (Tlirn tn Pa> . *3l.
alcohol by the yeast, Pachysolen, (Turn t 0 PageA3 '
Milton Hershey School Farms 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. July 19
HIGH MOISTURE GRAIN IS
MORE MGESTIBUL MORE
MUHBILMDMORE
NUTRITIOUS
The controlled fermentation pro- 1
cess helps livestock to utilize more
of the nutrients available in the feed.
The high moisture feed also tastes
better, and helps to obtain greater
milk production and weight gain at
a more economical cost.
BOTTOM UNLOADING
SYSTEMS
Bottom unloading systems
feature proven dependability
and low maintenance cost.
Your choice of tapered, power
driven sweep auger to help
prevent bridging and cavities,
or standard 6” auger f-'v
unloader with clean- I )
out sweep arm. I J
/
Sv Pawn .sweep''
Angel
LINED, OXYGBi LIMITING STORAGE SYSTEMS.
E 3
-
in a process developed at the
Northern Center.
Lignin cements cellulose and
hemicellulose in and around plant
cells like mortar and concrete in
and around bricks in a wall. It is a
source of many compounds that
could be converted to new products
such as plastics and other syn
thetics now made from
OTHER FEATURES
Glass-fused-to-steel wall and roof
panels for maximum protection.
Corrugated,
wall sheets with exterior stiffenereJ-v
provide extra strength. ' V
Radius drawn roof with 30.5 'Jg
degree pitch offers extra
against snow build-up. '
I