Viability of Wildflower Seeds After Mesophilic Anaerobic Digestion in Lab-Scale Biogas Reactors.

ABSTRACT: The use of wildflower species as biogas feedstock carries the risk that their seeds survive anaerobic digestion (AD) and cause weed problems if spread with the digestate. Risk factors for seed survival in AD include low temperature, short exposure and hardseededness (HS). However, it is not possible to predict how AD will affect seed viability of previously unstudied species. In laboratory-scale reactors, we exposed seeds of eight species from a mixture of flowering wild plants intended as biogas feedstock and three reference species to AD at two mesophilic temperatures. Half of the species were HS, the other was non-HS (NHS). Viability was determined using a combination of tetrazolium and germination tests. Viability and germinability were modeled as functions of exposure time using a dos

SUBMITTER: Hahn J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9337220 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature