Corn stalks

Everyone should know about corn stalks. Today I will give you a detailed introduction:

Corn stalks introduction

The relevant test results show that corn stalks contain more than 30% carbohydrates, 2% to 4% protein and 0.5% to 1% fat. They can be silaged or fed directly. For herbivores, the net energy gained by 2 kg of corn stalks is equivalent to 1 kg of corn kernels. Especially after silage, yellow storage, ammoniation and saccharification, the utilization rate can be improved, and the benefits will be more considerable. According to research and analysis, the digestible energy contained in corn stalks is 2 235.8 kJ/kg, and it is rich in nutrients, and the total energy is equivalent to that of forage. Fine processing of corn stalks to make them into high-nutrition livestock feed is not only conducive to the development of animal husbandry, but also has good ecological and economic benefits through returning the stalks to the fields.

Corn stalks use

There are a lot of corn stalks in rural areas, but people have not made full use of them in recent years. In fact, they are widely used in rural areas.

(1) After crushing, it can be used as silage

(ii) Can be used as liquefaction furnace, raw materials

(III) After crushing, edible fungi can be cultivated

At the turn of autumn and winter, the burning of corn stalks often becomes the target of public criticism for polluting the air. But there are two sides to this. Although burning is bad, what is the use of not burning it? In the past, the main uses of stalks were livestock feed, fuel for daily life, or composting fertilizer. Nowadays, most of the strong laborers in rural areas work outside, which not only earns money, but also teaches them to calculate working hours: plowing the fields, harrowing the land, and transporting food and grass, small tractors are better than raising livestock from dawn to dusk; it is much easier to apply chemical fertilizers on the land than to compost farmyard manure; it is more cost-effective to use coal for burning firewood and save the time to go to work. So there is the annual smoky late autumn and early winter. This year, in order to ensure the Olympic Games, nine provinces and cities around Beijing issued a ban on burning, and the situation seems to be better. Of course, there are exceptions, such as the construction of two factories using stalks as raw materials in Dongping County, Shandong: a power plant and an ethanol plant. Straw can be sold for money, so of course it will not smoke on the spot; converting straw into electricity and fuel ethanol can alleviate the tight situation of energy and food, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

As international oil and food prices soar, countries are arguing over who should be held responsible. The United States accuses developing countries such as China and India of raising oil and food prices, but the World Bank report points out that biofuel production in the EU and the United States distorts the food market in three ways: more than one-third of corn in the United States is used to produce fuel ethanol, and about half of vegetable oil in the EU is used to produce biodiesel; farmers are encouraged to set aside land to produce biofuel crops; financial speculation on food is stimulated, causing food prices to rise higher and higher. Russia also said: The amount of oil imported by the United States each year is more than three times that of China. The US population accounts for less than 5% of the world's total population, but consumes 25% of the world's oil. But the United States is too strong and did not respond to such analysis. Of course, the United States does not have to go all the way. As early as the end of last year, the US House of Representatives passed the first energy bill in more than 30 years, requiring the automotive industry to increase automobile fuel efficiency by 40% by 2020. If this is considered from the perspective of saving money, then the production of biofuels is to increase revenue. But the United States' oil consumption is really too large, and the result is that the whole world is affected. For example, the 42 million tons of corn used to produce fuel ethanol in the United States in 2006 was equivalent to the food rations of 135 million people. In 2007, it rose to 85 million tons, and this year it will certainly be even more. The United States subsidizes farmers by 5 to 7 billion US dollars every year for this. Producing one tank of oil is roughly equivalent to one person's annual food rations, and hundreds of millions of people around the world are starving because of this. This is the consequence of the continuous expansion of biofuels in the United States, Europe and other places. Even so, biofuels only account for 8% of the energy demand in the United States.

The energy-intensive lifestyle of Americans should perhaps be reviewed, but people in underdeveloped countries should also temporarily put aside their "hatred of the rich" complex and think about whether we consume less energy because we are more conscious or because we cannot afford it. To be fair, it is probably the latter. Otherwise, we will return to the period of shortage economy when energy consumption is the lowest. Stars, bosses, corrupt officials and other wealthy people who have the conditions to choose high branches are scrambling to immigrate or stay abroad. Since it is impossible for Americans to reduce their still rising consumption to the same level as us, and we always hope to catch up with developed countries and live a good life, the demand for energy will continue to grow. Instead of arguing about who is responsible, it is better to think about how to develop green energy without leaving any sequelae to replace the increasingly scarce traditional energy. Today, wind energy, solar energy, bioenergy, etc., which are becoming more and more popular, are still in the primary stage, but at least they are a good sign. When humans have not yet solved the problem of eating, it is indeed too luxurious to use corn and other foods to make fuel ethanol. But using non-food raw materials such as corn stalks to make ethanol like Dongping is worthy of learning from major corn producing areas including the United States and Europe. About 7 tons of corn stalks are equivalent to 4 tons of corn raw materials, which can produce 1 ton of ethanol, and the cost per ton is 1,000 yuan lower than producing ethanol from grain. When the project produces 60,000 tons of ethanol per year, it can increase farmers' income by 80 million yuan, with an average increase of more than 230 yuan per household. Shanxi is one of the main corn producing areas. Drawing on Dongping's experience, using stalks to produce ethanol can not only avoid smoke pollution caused by burning stalks on the spot, but also is a good project to develop a circular economy, alleviate energy shortages, and promote farmers' income.

Using corn stalks to produce fuel ethanol has both practical significance and demonstration effect. Because resources are limited, human beings should use their wisdom and talents to make good use of them, rather than just competing for resources with force and wasting them.