## 4 Characteristics of the Source Materials for Bioenergy Production
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Crops** & **Biodiesel** & **Pure Vegetable** & **Bio-Ethanol** & **Bio-ETBE** & **ABP** & **BMP** & **HHV** \\
**(h** **ha\({}^{\text{a}}\)**)** & **Oil (h** **ha\({}^{\text{a}}\)**)** & **(L** **ha\({}^{\text{a}}\)**)** & **(L** **ha\({}^{\text{a}}\)**)** & **(t** **ha\({}^{\text{a}}\)**)** & **(N**m** **t** **+** 1** **DM)** & **(N**m** ** **CH** **ha\({}^{\text{a}}\)**)** & **(M) kg\({}^{\text{a}}\)**)** \\ \hline
**Rapeseed** & 0.9 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0.8 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & - & - & - & - & - \\ \hline
**Sunflower** & 1.1 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 1.0 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & - & - & - & 832–4695 \({}^{\text{b},c}\) & - \\ \hline
**Soy** & 0.6 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0.5 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & - & - & - & - & - \\ \hline
**Abysssinan** & 1.0 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 0.9 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & - & - & - & - & - \\ \hline
**Sugar beet** & - & - & 5000–6000 \({}^{\text{a},c,d}\) & 9.6 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & - & 1954-6309 \({}^{\text{c}}\) & - \\ \hline
**Sugar sorghum** & - & - & 2800-6000 \({}^{\text{h},\text{m},d}\) & 8.3 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 423 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 2124-8370 \({}^{\text{c},\text{d}}\) & - \\ \hline
**Maze** & - & - &
\begin{tabular}{c} grains \\ starch \\ \end{tabular} & 700–2322 \({}^{\text{h},\text{m},\text{m},\text{q}}\) & \multirow{2}{*}{7.2 \({}^{\text{a}}\)} & \multirow{2}{*}{694.8 \({}^{\text{c}}\)} & 543-7768 \({}^{\text{o},\text{p}}\) \\  & & & 2010–4000 \({}^{\text{a},c}\) & & 5862–1250 \({}^{\text{c},\text{d}}\) \\ \hline
**Common cane** & - & - & 11,000 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & & 524 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 9580– & 19,440 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline
**Triticae** & - & - & 2843 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 677 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & 1000–5944 \({}^{\text{c},\text{d}}\) & - \\ \hline
**Miscanthus** & - & - & 8812 \({}^{\text{a}}\) & - & - & 187 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline
**Sugar cane** & - & - & - & 3000–8000 \({}^{\text{c},\text{h},\text{m}}\) & - & - & 16.8 \({}^{\text{a}}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}   
\({}^{\text{a}}\) [1]\({}^{\text{b}}\) [4]\({}^{\text{b}}\) [4]\({}^{\text{c}}\) [7]\({}^{\text{b}}\) [6]\({}^{\text{d}}\) [8]\({}^{\text  
For ethanol (first and second generation) and bioelectricity production, as well as direct combustion, only the stalk is used. The other parts (panicle and leaves) are used as agroindustrial waste, for animal feed production, or for production of energy through pyrolysis. By comparison, the production of cellulose from eucalyptus has high costs because of its high lignin content and because the forest cycle is about seven years. The use of sorghum is therefore competitive since the bagasse of sugar sorghum contains, on average, 30% cellulose, against 34% for wheat straw, 40% for sugar cane bagasse, 32% for maize cob, and 46% for _Eucalyptus globulus_ wood [95]. The amount of lignin, which has a more complex structure compared to cellulose and hemicellulose, can positively influence the thermal degradation of biomass. The component that has the highest percentage of lignin is the stalk of biomass sorghum (18.7%). Forage sorghum cultivars have a low concentration of lignin in the stalk (5.75%; Table 3). This makes them good candidates for hydrolysis, which yields sugars for the production of second-generation ethanol and, consequently, for the production of liquid biofuels. The ash content ranges from 3.41% to 9.44% (Table 3), values close to those of the maize cob (1.1% DW) and sugar cane bagasse (11.3% FW; [75]). Plant ashes contain reasonable quantities of micro- and macro-nutrients and are effective for reducing soil acidity, increasing the pH of the soil and its soluble concentrations of Mg, P, and K, and, therefore, can be used as fertilizers. However, in the bioenergy industries that use pyrolysis, the production of a great amount of ashes represents a disadvantage due to the need for their continuous removal from the furnace. _Arundo donax_, or common cane, is an herbaceous perennial plant with a long, hollow, and robust stem that grows even in relatively poor soils.