Triticale for Bioenergy Production

The promotion of renewable energy represents a target of the European 2020 strategy for growth.

Plant biomass and organic wastes from agriculture represent an effective resource to be exploited for a sustainable rural development, optimizing the land use, diversifying rural entrepreneurship.

Cereals are considered a promising biomass producing crop in temperate regions of Europe to be used for both fuel alcohol and biogas production.

In particular, triticale shows a number of advantages such as high grain yield even in marginal environments, tolerance to drought, tolerance to more acid soils, low susceptibility to biotic stresses and is known to have reduced production costs.

The characteristics of triticale were reviewed, focusing on bio-energy applications.

Furthermore, data from a two-year experiment carried out in Italy using nine triticale lines grown in marginal areas close to Bracciano, Italy, were reported. A bread wheat variety selected for bio-energy application, EW9, were also included for a more complete analysis. Traits such as day-to-heading, plant height, number of plants, number of spikes, grain yields were analysed. Preliminary results concerning biogas potential of biomass consisting of triticale hay harvested at milky-dough phase were also measured and results are reported.