Evaluierung von Winterzwischenfrüchten in einem Zweikultur-Nutzungssystem mit Mais für die Biogaserzeugung (English shop)

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It is a current political objective to increasingly supply the population with electrical energy from renewable sources. With the adoption of the EEG (Renewable Energy Sources Act, Federal Ministry of Justice 2008), biofuels as well as technologies for generating electricity from renewable energies are to be promoted, so that by 2020 at least 30% of energy consumption through electricity in Germany can be covered by renewable energy.

One option for generating electricity from renewable energy is the use of renewable raw materials in biogas plants. Here, combustible gas (methane) can be produced by the fermentation of biomass, which can subsequently be used in a combined heat and power plant to generate electricity. The most important biomass source for biogas plants in Germany is currently maize. Due to narrow crop rotations, however, its cultivation is increasingly accompanied by pests and the occurrence of weeds that are difficult to control (Hötte et al. 2010).

Intensive agricultural land use is often associated with a high application of nitrogen-containing fertilisers. In crop rotations in which surpluses from nitrogen fertilisation already remain from the preceding crop and no subsequent crop is grown immediately, large quantities of mineral nitrogen may be present in the soil. In addition, further amounts of nitrogen may be added in autumn through mineralisation. If these highly mobile nutrients are not bound, the risk increases that considerable quantities of nitrate will be leached from the soil at the onset of the winter seepage water period. The eutrophication of water bodies as well as a deterioration in drinking water quality are only some of the risks that arise. The objective must therefore be to minimise nitrate leaching.