2018-10-19, Bosona, Techane, Gebresenbet, Girma, Olsson, Sven-Olof, Garcia, Daniel, Germer, Sonja

The paper presents a report on the performance evaluation of a newly developed smart logistics system (SLS). Field tests were conducted in Spain, Germany, and Sweden. The evaluation focused on the performance of a smart box tool (used to capture information during biomass transport) and a web-based information platform (used to monitor the flow of agricultural pruning from farms to end users and associated information flow). The tests were performed following a product usability testing approach, considering both qualitative and quantitative parameters. The detailed performance evaluation included the following: systematic analysis of 41 recordable parameters (stored in a spreadsheet database), analysis of feedback and problems encountered during the tests, and overall quality analysis applying the product quality model adapted from ISO/IEC FDIS 9126-1 standard. The data recording and storage and the capability to support product traceability and supply chain management were found to be very satisfactory, while assembly of smart box components (mainly the associated cables), data transferring intervals, and manageability could be improved. From the data retrieved during test activities, in more than 95% of the parameters within 41 columns, the expected values were displayed correctly. Some errors were observed, which might have been caused mainly by barriers that could hinder proper data recording and transfer from the smart box to the central database. These problems can be counteracted and the performance of the SLS can be improved so that it can be upgraded to be a marketable tool that can promote sustainable biomass-to-energy value chains. © 2018 by the authors.

2018-11-14, De Vrieze, Jo, Ijaz, Umer Z., Saunders, Aaron M., Theuerl, Susanne

The microbial community in anaerobic digestion has been analysed through microbial fingerprinting techniques, such as terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (TRFLP), for decades. In the last decade, high-throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing has replaced these techniques, but the time-consuming and complex nature of high-throughput techniques is a potential bottleneck for full-scale anaerobic digestion application, when monitoring community dynamics. Here, the bacterial and archaeal TRFLP profiles were compared with 16S rRNA gene amplicon profiles (Illumina platform) of 25 full-scale anaerobic digestion plants. The α-diversity analysis revealed a higher richness based on Illumina data, compared with the TRFLP data. This coincided with a clear difference in community organisation, Pareto distribution, and co-occurrence network statistics, i.e., betweenness centrality and normalised degree. The β-diversity analysis showed a similar clustering profile for the Illumina, bacterial TRFLP and archaeal TRFLP data, based on different distance measures and independent of phylogenetic identification, with pH and temperature as the two key operational parameters determining microbial community composition. The combined knowledge of temporal dynamics and projected clustering in the β-diversity profile, based on the TRFLP data, distinctly showed that TRFLP is a reliable technique for swift microbial community dynamics screening in full-scale anaerobic digestion plants. © 2018, The Author(s).