Presented by Michael Blümmel, ILRI, at the Global Animal Nutrition Conference, Bengalaru, India 20-22 April 2014

1. 1
Looking for opportunities from second generation
bio-fuel technologies to upgrade lignocellulosic
biomass for livestock feed
Michael Blümmel
International Livestock Research Institute
Global Animal Nutrition Conference
Bengalaru, India 20-22 April 2014

2. Topics Part 1
 Importance of lignocellulosic biomass (LCB)
as a global natural resource
 Importance of LCB as livestock feed
resources
 What differences in LCB fodder traits matter
and why

3. 3
Why invest in lignocellulosic biomass (LCB)
 Most abundant renewable biomass on earth
 Total annual production of about 10-50 billion metric tons
(Sanchez and Cardena 2008)
 About 4 billion tons consist of crop residues, the direct and
widely available byproduct of crop production
(Lal 2005)
 High nutritive value of basic constituents of LCB

4. 4
Key feed sources in India: 2003
and 2020
Feed Resource %
Crop Residues
Planted fodder crops
2003 2020
44.2 69.0
34.1 ?
Greens (F/F/CPR/WL) 17.8 <10
Concentrates 3.9 7.3
(summarized from NIANP, 2005 and Ramachandra et al., 2007)

5. 5
Sorghum stover trading in
Hyderabad

6. 6
Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Ju Jul Aug Sep Oc Nov
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Sorghum grain
Sorghum stover
3.4
6.5
Month of trading
IndianRupeeperkg
Yearly mean
2004 to 2005
Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Ju Jul Aug Sep Oc Nov
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Sorghum stover
Sorghum grain
6.2
10.2
Yearly mean
2008 to 2009
Month of trading
Comparisions of average cost of dry sorghum stover traded in Hyderabad and average of cost of
sorghum grain in Andhra Pradesh 2005 to 2005 and 2008 to 2009
Changes in grain: stover value in
sorghum traded in Hyderabad from
2004 to 2009

7. 7
Type and cost of sorghum stover
traded monthly 2004-2005 in
Hyderabad, India
Stover type Price IR / kg DM
Andhra 3.52b
Andhra Hybrid 3.15cd
Ballary Hybrid 3.54b
Raichur 3.89a
Rayalaseema 3.23c
Telangana (Local Y) 3.06d
Blümmel and Parthasarathy, 2006

8. Relation between digestibility and
price of sorghum stover
44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55
2.8
3.0
3.2
3.4
3.6
3.8
4.0
4.2
y = -4.9 + 0.17x; R2
= 0.75; P = 0.03
Stover in vitro digestibility (%)
Stoverprice(IR/kgDM)
Premium Stover
“Raichur”
Low Cost Stover
“Local Yellow”
Blümmel and Parthasarathy, 2006

9. Feed block manufacturing: supplementation,
densification
Ingredients %
Sorghum stover 50
Bran/husks/hulls 18
Oilcakes 18
Molasses 8
Grains 4
Minerals, vitamins, urea 2
Courtesy: Miracle Fodder and Feeds PVT LTD

10. Comparisons of higher and lower
quality sorghum stover based complete
feed blocks in dairy buffalo
Block High
(52% dig)
Block Low
(47% dig)
CP 17.2 % 17.1%
ME (MJ/kg) 8.46 MJ/kg 7.37 MJ/kg
DMI 19.7 kg/d 18.0 kg/d
DMI per kg LW 3.6 % 3.3 %
Milk Potential 16.6 kg/d 11.8 kg/d
Anandan et al. (2009a)

11. Cultivar Treatment IVOMD (%) DMI (kg/d) Gain (g/d)
Gerbel U 27.6 3.43 106
Gerbel As 37.8 4.70 359
Igri U 29.5 3.56 126
Igri As 37.5 4.82 332
Corgi U 39.0 5.16 400
Corgi A 54.1 5.86 608
Golden Promise U 36.4 4.43 198
Golden Promise A 45.6 4.93 602
Norman U 31.7 4.57 237
Norman A 44.8 5.81 516
Mean U 32.8 4.23 213
Mean A 44.0 5.22 483
∆ A/U 34% 23% 227%
Comparisons of untreated (U) and ammonia treated barley,
wheat and oat straw in in vitro digestibility (IVOMD) and dry
matter intake (DMI) and weight gain (Gain) of steers
Calculated from Ørskov et al. (1988)

12. Conclusion Part 1
 Importance of ligno cellulosic biomass (LCB)
particularly from crop residues as fodder
resource is still increasing
 Overall monetary value of grain to crop residue (food to
feed/fodder?) is getting narrower
 “Intuitively” small differences in crop reside fodder
quality can have large effects on
livestock productivity
 Accumulative effect of higher ME concentration plus
higher voluntary feed intake

13. Topics Part 2
 Pathways in 2nd generation biofuel technologies
of common interest to renewable energy
researchers and animal nutritionists
 Mechanical, chemical, physical and biological
pre-treatment approaches
 Pilot testing of one spin-off technology for
upgrading fodder value of LCB

14. -
-

15. re- rea e
re rea e io a
e o e
Ru e icro ial
i e ioer al
LU
-
Unclear benefit for ruminant nutrition, more
research with new enzymes/enzyme cocktails needed
Demand/potential for monogastric nutrition
“One pot” complete enzymatic conversions
Swell and disrupt hemicellulose-cellulose-lignin matrix
Partially hydrolyze xylan structure
Increase surface and porocity of fiber stucture
Efficient harvest and collection of high volume-low density
biomass
Balance central versus decentralized approach
Optimize physical form-transport-susceptibility to pre
treatment-voluntary feed intake
io a raw a o er

16. Pre-treatment Surface area Solubilization HC Structure L Toxic BP
Mechanical
+ - - -
Steam explosion
+ + + +
Liquid hot water
+ + - -
Acid
+ + - +
Alkaline
+ - + -
Oxidative
+ + -
Thermal + acid
+ - + +
Thermal + alkaline
+ - + -
Thermal + oxidative
+ - + -
Thermal + alkaline + oxidative
+ - + -
Ammonia fiber expansion
+ - + -
Carbon dioxide
+ + + -
Modified from Hendriks and Zeeman (2009
Common pre-treatment approaches
and their effects

17. Likely criteria for filtering pre-
treatment approaches
 Investment, economy, environment
 Loss or difficult to recover soluble CHO
 Formation of toxic substances, health issues
 Information about potential impact on fodder quality
improvement (tentatively AFEX)

18. Effect of Ammonia Fiber Expansion (AFEX)
on nitrogen (N), cell wall (NDF) content
and in vitro true digestibility (TDMD)
of 11 roughages
N
g/kg DM
NDF
g NDF/kg DM
TDMD
g/kgDM
AFEX 27.0 764 738
Control 10.4 629 527
Calculated from Bals et al. (2010)

19. In vitro gas production from diets consisting
of pellets with 80% untreated and AFEX
treated maize stover at different
incubation times 1
_________________________________________________________
Time (hr) Control AFEX
_________________________________________________________
4 42.3b 61.2a
12 97.6b 139.2a`
24 147.6b 206.3a
48 203.6b 262.1a
_____________________________________________
* Results are presented as mL of gas/g sample dry matter
a-b Means within rows with different letters differ at P < 0.05
1 MSU/MBI unpublished results
Blümmel and Dale, submitted
Preliminary findings: intake in sheep about 45% increased

20. Conclusion Part 2
 Past and ongoing investment into 2nd generation bio-
fuel technologies are enormous compared to classical
investment into feed research
 Search for spin-off technologies almost mandatory,
common interest at least to glucose level
 More systematic exploration required extending to
monogastric nutrition
 Obviously economics will be more decisive than biology
 However, one percent unit increase in digestibility is
associated with at least 5% increase in livestock
productivity)

21. 2121
Thank you for your
attention!