A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO CHARACTERIZE TRITICALE ELITE LINES FOR INDUSTRIAL USES

Cristina Cantale

ENEA Casaccia RC, via Anguillarese, 301 - 00123 Rome, IT, (Italy)

Alessandro Belmonte

ENEA Casaccia RC, via Anguillarese, 301 - 00123 Rome, IT, (Italy)

Angelo Correnti

ENEA Casaccia RC, via Anguillarese, 301 - 00123 Rome, IT, (Italy)

Anna Farneti

ENEA Casaccia RC, via Anguillarese, 301 - 00123 Rome, IT, (Italy)

Fabio Felici

ENEA Casaccia RC, via Anguillarese, 301 - 00123 Rome, IT, (Italy)

Laura Gazza

CREA-(QCE) Cereal Quality, via Manziana, 30 – 00189 Rome, IT (Italy)

Arianna Latini

ENEA Casaccia RC, via Anguillarese, 301 - 00123 Rome, IT, (Italy)

Francesca Nocente

CREA-(QCE) Cereal Quality, via Manziana, 30 – 00189 Rome, IT (Italy)

Carla Micheli

ENEA Casaccia RC, via Anguillarese, 301 - 00123 Rome, IT, (Italy)

Francesco Petrazzuolo

ENEA Casaccia RC, via Anguillarese, 301 - 00123 Rome, IT, (Italy)

Patrizia Galeffi

ENEA Casaccia RC, via Anguillarese, 301 - 00123 Rome, IT, (Italy)

Abstract

Plant biomass and organic wastes from agriculture represent an effective resource to be exploited for
a sustainable rural development, optimizing the land use, diversifying rural entrepreneurship, producing energy
and new income.
Among crops, triticale is considered particularly interesting, showing several advantages such as high
grain yield even in marginal environments, tolerance to drought, tolerance to more acid soils, lower production
costs and lower susceptibility to biotic stresses.
In the frame of a long collaboration with CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center-
MX), eight triticale elite lines from Mexico were grown in Italy using marginal lands. An Italian triticale
variety and a bread wheat line, specifically bred for bioenergy applications, were used for comparison. Over
three growing seasons, different agronomic evaluations were obtained harvesting at milk phase. In the third
growing season, a set of parcels was harvested also at maturity, to evaluate grain yields and quality parameters
from seeds.
Milk phase biomass were properly dried and characterized following reference procedures, then used as
substrate for anaerobic digestion to produce biogas and methane in lab-scale experiments.
Seeds from interesting lines were used to test different quality parameters including falling number in
order to evaluate the fermentation ability. RAPD technique by two different panels of primers was used to
genotype a selection of lines.

Keywords:

digestion, biomass, energy, methane, triticale