Topic A.3: Characterization of the by-products from the agricultural sector concerning their suitability for high quality applications of modern products

Plants such as corn, Jerusalem artichokes, miscanthus and hemp also contain lignocellulose. Although agricultural raw materials’ suitability as wood substitutes in chipboard manufacturing has already established (FNR - German Agency for Renewable Resources, 2009), there is a need for further research into new products. This topic first serves to identify agricultural products that, due to their lignocellulose content, could be relevant as wooden material substitutes. These products are subsequently more accurately characterized in terms of their properties (chemical, physical, biological, re process engineering) and quality parameters. The obtained data are then correlated with the quality requirements regarding wood-based materials for high quality products. This will allow deductions to be made regarding which production process adaptations will be required to meet the wood-based materials industry’s specific quality standards. Some preliminary work has been done in the special procedural field and qualitative requirements of the substrates in the biogas sector (Wegener, 2008; Wegener et al., 2010) and also pertaining to the generation of energy from agricultural by-products and lignocellulosic material from landscape management (Wegener, Lücke, 2008; Vasylenko et al., 2008).

The selection and characterization of agricultural products in this field are initially based on literature studies and database searches on product characteristics. Afterwards, similar to the methods used in topics A.2 and A.4, selected products are characterized according to their chemical and physical properties and some product prototypes are manufactured from these materials. This will result in tables of suitable products and a characterization of their substitution potential regarding selected wood technology applications. In addition, cultivation recommendations can be derived regarding compliance with agricultural production’s required quality parameters.