Industrial Crops and Products 81 (2016) 72–82 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Industrial Crops and Products jo u r n al homep age: www.elsevier.com/locate/indcrop Miscanthus × giganteus as a biomass feedstock grown on municipal sewage sludge Barbara Kołodziej a,∗ , Jacek Antonkiewicz b , Danuta Sugier a a Department of Industrial and Medicinal Plants, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, 13 Akademicka Str., 20-950 Lublin, Poland b Department of Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry, Agricultural University in Kraków, 21 Al. Mickiewicza Str., 31-120 Kraków, Poland a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 8 September 2015 Received in revised form 17 November 2015 Accepted 20 November 2015 Keywords: Miscanthus × giganteus Biomass yield Harvest date Propagation Sewage sludge application a b s t r a c t Utilization of sewage sludge seems to be an attractive option for fertilization of bioenergy crops; therefore the objective of this study was to determine the effect of different doses of municipal sewage sludge on yields and bioenergy feedstock characteristics of Miscanthus × giganteus (Greef et Deu.). In a six-year field experiment, located on loamy clay, five doses of sludge (0, 10, 20, 40, 60 Mg DM ha −1 ), two methods of plantation establishment (by rhizome divisions and micropropagation), and three dates of biomass harvesting (autumn, winter, spring) were tested in order to determine which one should be recommended in cultivation of this species. Dry matter yields of giant miscanthus increased each year and exceeded 25 Mg ha −1 in an optimized system within this study. It was found out that application of lower doses of sludge (10–20 Mg DM ha −1 ), resulted in obtaining the highest yield of biomass. On the other hand, the content, uptake and bioaccumu- lation factor of macronutrients contained in the sludge increased along with increasing dose of applied biosolids. M. giganteus biomass was characterized by favorable parameters: net and gross calorific values were in the range of 16.2–16.8 MJ kg −1 and 17.7–18.2 MJ kg −1 , respectively. The highest energy value of biomass yield was obtained in the case of rhizomes used for plantation establishment, especially in the treatments with 20 Mg DM ha −1 of sludge application. Spring harvest improved quality of biomass for thermochemical conversion, but at the same time significantly (by 22%) reduced yields, whereas winter harvest resulted in biomass loss without its quality amelioration compared to the autumn one. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Bioenergy resources are considered to be primary energy sources. In agricultural areas biomass derived from field crops should be the main source of renewable energy (Lewandowski and Heinz, 2003; Ku´ s and Matyka, 2009). The potential of biomass production is enormous, since it is of importance for bioenergy, and non-fuel biorefinery by-products in the future. Calculations of available energy contained in biomass show that it ranged from 130 to 270 EJ/year around the world (Beringer et al., 2011), and assessment of its contribution in the European Union shows, on average, 5.4 EJ (130 Mtoe) (Stampfl et al., 2007). Biomass for energy production could be categorized as: residues from agriculture and forestry, organic waste, surplus forestry and energy crops. The last category (dedicated energy crops) is considered to be the most important group; however, the large-scale cultivation of these ∗ Corresponding author. Fax: +48 81 4456591. E-mail address: barbara.kolodziej@up.lublin.pl (B. Kołodziej). crops could compete directly with food production, especially on the most fertile lands. Recently, a great attention has been paid to the so-called second-generation energy crops, whose biomass, rich in lingo-cellulose, is a raw material in conversion to electric- ity, heat, biofuels or biomaterials. It is expected that production of these second-generation energy crops will develop to a large scale in the next 20 years (Atkinson, 2009). Among these energy crops, giant miscanthus is less dependent on favorable soil and cli- matic conditions, requiring fewer inputs of agrochemicals and not competing with food production (Beringer et al., 2011; Anderson et al., 2011; Godin et al., 2013). Miscanthus × giganteus Greef et Deu. (hereinafter referred to as M. giganteus or giant miscanthus) is a spontaneous sterile triploid discovered in Japan in 1935, com- bining the features of two species from Asia (Miscanthus sinensis and . sacchariflorus sacchariflorus) with better yields occurring dur- ing warm, humid summers (Atkinson, 2009; Heaton et al., 2004; Borkowska and Molas, 2013; Meehan et al., 2013). For many years it was treated as an exotic ornamental plant when, at the beginning of the 1980s,first plantations in Denmark and Germany, and later on in other European countries (inter aliain Poland) were established http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2015.11.052 0926-6690/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.