Excessive cultivation of maize (Zea mays L.) as a biogas substrate has fired debate about potential land‐use change effects of bioenergy cropping systems. Cup plant ( Silphium perfoliatum L.) is a perennial biogas crop that provides more environmental services than maize. This study investigated (i) how to replace maize with cup plant as a biogas substrate in a large‐scale biogas plant located in southwest Germany, and (ii) how to optimize the energy and material cycles of such a biogas plant given the new feedstock. The biogas plant produces 1000 m³ biogas per hour with plans for it to be combined with a large dairy farm (1000 dairy units). It was found that the substitution of maize with cup plant as a biogas substrate results in a methane yield reduction of 10% to 20% due to lower biomass yields. However, there exists a strong potential to increase both biomass yields and biogas substrate quality of cup plant by optimizing establishment procedures and better genotypes. Furthermore, cup plant provides food and shelter for open land animals, including birds and insects, and could hence be a suitable alternative to maize for large biogas plants, being more environmentally beneficial. Extracting proteins from cup‐plant biomass could also help replace soy with locally produced protein for feeding cattle. Hydrothermal carbonization is a promising tool for closing nutrient cycles and for extracting phosphate from digestate, but more research is needed before it can be put into practice. © 2020 The Authors. Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining published by Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

中文翻译：

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用杯状植物（Silphium perfoliatum L.）替代玉米（Zea mays L.）作为沼气基质，并且对大型沼气厂的能量和物质流产生影响

过量种植作为沼气基质的玉米（Zea mays L.）引发了关于生物能源种植系统潜在的土地利用变化影响的争论。杯状植物（Silphium perfoliatum L.）是多年生沼气作物，比玉米提供更多的环境服务。这项研究调查了（i）在德国西南部的大型沼气厂中如何用杯状植物代替玉米作为沼气基质，以及（ii）在使用新原料的情况下如何优化这种沼气厂的能源和材料循环。沼气厂产生1000 m ³每小时沼气，并计划将其与大型奶牛场（1000个奶牛场）结合使用。已经发现，用杯形植物作为沼气底物替代玉米会导致甲烷产量降低10％至20％，原因是生物量产量降低。然而，通过优化建立程序和更好的基因型，有很大的潜力提高杯子植物的生物量产量和沼气基质质量。此外，杯状植物为包括鸟类和昆虫在内的空地动物提供食物和庇护所，因此对于大型沼气植物而言，杯状植物可能是玉米的合适替代品，对环境更加有益。从杯状植物生物质中提取蛋白质还可以用当地生产的蛋白质代替大豆来饲养牛。水热碳化是封闭养分循环和从消化物中提取磷酸盐的有前途的工具，但要付诸实践，还需要进行更多研究。©2020作者。化学工业协会和John Wiley＆Sons，Ltd.出版的生物燃料，生物产品和生物精炼。