Annette Prochnow

Annette Prochnow
Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy | ATB · Technology Assessment

Prof. Dr. rer. agr. habil.

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100
Publications
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Publications

Publications (100)
Article
Full-text available
Autumn tree leaves collect as waste on many city streets every year. In the city of Berlin, they are usually collected and transported for composting as their final treatment, which emits greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere. This study assesses alternative end uses of autumn tree leaves in order explore the potential of reducing GHG emission...
Preprint
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Spatial and temporal distribution of water and nitrogen supply affects soil-borne nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. In this study, the effects of different irrigation technologies (no irrigation, sprinkler irrigation and drip irrigation) and nitrogen (N) application types (broadcasted and dissolved in irrigation water) on N2O emissions and the potenti...
Article
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Nitrous oxide (N2O), one of the major greenhouse gases, features a 273-fold higher global warming potential compared to carbon dioxide (CO2). Soil-born N2O emissions are based on microbial processes, while the microbial processes are affected by environmental factors and agronomic management measures. The objective of this study was the exploration...
Article
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Drainage and agricultural use transform natural peatlands from a net carbon (C) sink to a net C source. Rewetting of peatlands, despite of high methane (CH4 ) emissions, holds the potential to mitigate climate change by greatly reducing CO2 emissions. However, the time span for this transition is unknown because most studies are limited to a few ye...
Article
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Autumn tree leaves are residues that are generated annually and usually composted, but can also be used as a feedstock for biogas production. In this study, three scenarios were analysed to evaluate the utilization of tree leaves from the city of Berlin in Germany: a) composting (business-as-usual scenario); b) biogas production; and c) the pretrea...
Article
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a keystone in the circular economy concept. The produced biogas can be demand-driven controlled and regionally adaptable, but sustainable feedstocks are required. Sorghum is a valuable alternative considering its bioenergy potential and wide adaptability to different environmental conditions. In this study, AD of sorghum...
Article
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Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as well as other gaseous emissions and agronomic variables were measured for three years (2011/2012 - 2014/2015) at eight experimental field sites in Germany. All management activities were consistently documented. The database (GHG-DB-Thuenen) stores these multi-variable data sets of gas fluxes (CO2, N2O, CH4 and NH3...
Article
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Detailed knowledge about farm management practices and related hydrological processes on water productivity is required to substantially increase the productivity of precipitation water use in agriculture. With this in mind, the effect of the nitrogen (N) fertilization level on water productivity of winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) was analy...
Article
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A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10705-021-10138-5
Technical Report
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This report reviews 50 studies analyzing livestock water productivity carried out in various regions of the world from 1993 to 2018.
Article
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Winter oilseed rape (WOSR) is the major oil crop cultivated in Europe and the most important feedstock for biodiesel. Up to 90% of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from biodiesel production can occur during oilseed rape cultivation. Therefore, mitigation strategies are required and need to focus on direct nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emission as one of...
Article
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The production of broiler meat has increased significantly in the last decades in Germany and worldwide, and is projected to increase further in the future. As the number of animals raised increases, so too does the amount of manure produced. The identification of manure treatment options that cause low greenhouse gas emissions becomes ever more im...
Article
Oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) is the major oil crop in Europe and Germany but its hydrological functioning is poorly understood. Studies on the interception processes in oilseed rape have been lacking until the present. The interception of rainfall by oilseed rape is expected to vary in response to substantial changes in canopy structure through...
Article
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After nearly two decades of subsidized and energy crop-oriented development, agricultural biogas production in Germany is standing at a crossroads. Fundamental challenges need to be met. In this article we sketch a vision of a future agricultural biogas plant that is an integral part of the circular bioeconomy and works mainly on the base of residu...
Article
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Disturbances of the anaerobic digestion process reduce the economic and environmental performance of biogas systems. A better understanding of the highly complex process is of crucial importance in order to avoid disturbances. This review defines process disturbances as significant changes in the functionality within the microbial community leading...
Article
In the light of a dire need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from food value chains, this paper analyses GHG emissions from wine production based on primary data from 5 wineries, one wine cellar and 9 grape producers in Germany and explores main emission sources based on their contributions to variance. Considering system boundaries from cr...
Article
Owing to an increasing world population and a rising demand in protein for food and feed, alternative protein sources are needed. In addition, existing food and protein supplies such as wild and farmed fish need to be secured. Insects and more specifically the black soldier fly (BSF; Hermetia illucens) larvae, are discussed as an alternative animal...
Article
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PurposeThis study examines the inter-annual variability of production data in an organic dairy farm and its effect on the estimation of product-related greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) using a detailed material flow model. It is believed that the examination of only one production year may not adequately reflect temporal representativeness and may th...
Article
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Winter oilseed rape (Brassica napus L., WOSR) is the major oil crop cultivated in Europe. Rapeseed oil is predominantly used for production of biodiesel. The framework of the European Renewable Energy Directive requires that use of biofuels achieves GHG savings of at least 50% compared to use of fossil fuel starting in 2018. However, N2O field emis...
Article
Grain moisture content is an important factor for the management of harvesting and postharvest operations and for capacity planning in grain harvest, storage and preservation, and a basis for pricing in grain trade. The advantage of rapid and non-destructive on-combine moisture content determination is set against the disadvantage of lower measurem...
Article
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Purpose Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies of food products, such as dairy, require many input parameters that are affected by variability and uncertainty. Moreover, correlations may be present between input parameters, e.g. between feed intake and milk yield. The purpose of this study was to identify which input parameters are essential to assess...
Article
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The German wine sector has encountered new challenges in water management recently. To manage water resources responsibly, it is necessary to understand the relationship between the input of water and the output of wine, in terms of quantity and quality. The objectives of this study are to examine water use at the farm scale at three German winerie...
Preprint
Full-text available
The German wine sector has encountered new challenges in water management recently. To manage water resources responsibly, it is necessary to understand the relationship between the input of water and the output of wine, in terms of quantity and quality. The objectives of this study are to examine water use at the farm scale at three German winerie...
Article
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Fens are organic sites that require drainage for agricultural use. Lowering the groundwater level leads to trade-offs between economic benefits and environmental impacts (i.e., CO2 and nutrient emissions). To identify management options that are both environmentally and economically sustainable, a propaedeutic systematic analysis of the costs, inco...
Article
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Carbon (C) is a central element in organic compounds and is an indispensable resource for life. It is also an essential production factor in bio-based economies, where biomass serves many purposes, including energy generation and material production. Biomass conversion is a common case of transformation between different carbon-containing compounds...
Article
Irrigation induces processes that may either decrease or increase greenhouse gas emissions from cropping systems. To estimate the net effect of irrigation on the greenhouse gas emissions, it is necessary to consider changes in the crop yields, the content of soil organic carbon and nitrous oxide emissions, as well as in emissions from the use and p...
Article
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Water is used in dairy farming for producing feed, watering the animals, and cleaning and disinfecting barns and equipment. The objective of this study was to investigate the drinking and cleaning water use in a dairy cow barn. The water use was measured on a well-managed commercial dairy farm in North-East Germany. Thirty-eight water meters were i...
Article
Irrigation water demand (IWD) is increasing worldwide, including in regions such as Germany that are characterized with low precipitation levels, yet grow water-demanding crops such as sugar beets, potatoes, and vegetables. This study aimed to calculate and analyze the spatial and temporal changes in the IWD of four crops-spring barley, oat, winter...
Article
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This paper analyses the comparative advantage of using silage maize or grass as feedstock for anaerobic digestion to biogas from a greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation point of view, taking into account site-specific yield potentials, management options, and land-use change effects. GHG emissions due to the production of biogas were calculated using a l...
Article
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Bioresources are used in different production systems as materials as well as energy carriers. The same is true for fossil fuel resources. This study explored whether preferential resource usages exist, using a building insulation system as an example, with regard to the following sustainability criteria: climate impact, land, and fossil fuel deman...
Article
The expected increase in broiler meat consumption in Brazil in future will lead to further increase in water use. The objective of this study was to quantify water productivity of four Brazilian broiler farms. Water use in the four farming systems was analyzed in terms of feed production, drinking, cleaning, and cooling. One focus was the crop wate...
Article
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In this study modeled full scale application of thermobarical hydrolysis of less degradable feedstock for biomethanation was assessed in terms of energy balance, greenhouse gas emissions, and economy. Data were provided whether the substitution of maize silage as feedstock for biogas production by pretreated cattle wastes is beneficial in full-scal...
Article
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With the expected increase in poultry meat consumption water use will increase as well. The objective of this study is to quantify the effects of fattening systems on the water productivity in broiler chicken production with consideration given to conditions in Germany. Four fattening systems were analyzed in terms of water use for feed production,...
Article
Grain harvesting is one of the most weather-dependent processes in agriculture. Grain moisture contents decide on machinery use and costs and determine the necessary grain harvesting and preservation capacities of farms. The objective of this work is to investigate whether and how recent climate changes in the German state of Brandenburg affect the...
Article
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of supplemental irrigation on the amount of N2O emissions on a sandy soil in north-east Germany. N2O flux measurements were carried out over two vegetation periods from the emergence of plants to harvest. The level of N2O emissions was low, which is typical for sandy soils in north-east Germany. I...
Article
Livestock production is the main user of water resources in agricultural production. The objective of this study is to quantify the effects of dairy management strategies such as feeding strategies, milk yield and replacement rate on the water productivity of milk. The study is based on site conditions of North-East Germany. The water input is cons...
Article
To better understand the complex interactions between irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer application on soil organic carbon content, the results from long-term field experiments over a period of 40 years were analysed. The combined effect of irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer rates on crop yields, carbon input by above ground harvest residues and s...
Article
In this article, a drip-fertigation system was compared to a control without irrigation concerning the amount of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions under the climatic conditions of north-east Germany. The investigation was carried out at a field research station in the federal state of Brandenburg. The mean N2O emissions under drip-fertigation were sign...
Article
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Water is needed in agriculture not only to ensure plant growth and to feed livestock, but also indirectly in pre-chains to produce machines, equipment, buildings and operating materials. This water is referred to as indirect water. The focus of this article is on the indirect water demand for farm buildings in milk production, which was assessed fo...
Article
This study investigates the variance of the overall greenhouse gas mitigation potential of a complete second generation stationary bio-electricity production system, generated by poplar wood chips (Populus spec.) in Germany, using Monte Carlo simulations. We computed the GHG emissions as EB = (−0.034 ± 0.021) kg CO2e MJ−1 (mean ± SD) and the mitiga...
Article
Biogas production from grassland biomass harvested during landscape management may help to maintain species-rich grassland biotopes, but extensive management and late harvests often result in low-quality biomass. Biogas production from the vegetation of Alopecuretum pratensis, Molinietum caeruleae and Caricetum gracilis, three typical grassland bio...
Article
Irrigation has a critical role for crop production worldwide. In particular, irrigation is a major issue due to the growing food demand and climate change. Irrigation affects yields and the emission of greenhouse gases such as CO2 and N2O by soils. Here, we review the effect of irrigation on soil organic carbon and N2O emissions. We analysed 22 inv...
Article
To meet the food demands of a growing world population, the productivity of agricultural water use for food production at farm scale, must be increased. A modeling database has been developed to quantify water use, i.e. the use of precipitation, soil water and irrigation water at the farm scale, and to calculate water-use indicators based on farm o...
Article
Shortening chopping length at harvest of biogas crops is a basic method of mechanical pretreatment that potentially affects subsequent conservation and biogas production processes. The objective of this study was to assess the influence of a wider range of particle size distributions achieved by laboratory chopping and of practice-oriented short an...
Article
Reducing chopping length for biogas crop harvesting is a pretreatment method to support the processes of ensiling and methane formation, yet it also increases expenditures at harvest. To assess environmental performance and economic viability, the effects of reducing chopping lengths from common to very short settings on energy balance, greenhouse...
Article
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The decreasing availability of water caused by depletion and climate change combined with a growing world population requires the productive use of water now and in the future. The young researcher group "AgroHyd" at the Leibniz-Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim (ATB) is currently modeling the water demand for agricultural proce...
Article
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Indicators for water use at farm scale can assist farmers in understanding the water flows on their farms and in optimizing water use by adapting agronomic measures and farm management. The objective of this work is to develop a methodology to estimate water flows at the farm scale, to derive indicators for farm water use, and to apply them in a fi...
Article
Agricultural lands have been identified to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions primarily by production of energy crops and substituting fossil energy resources and through carbon sequestration in soils. An increased fertilizer input to agricultural crops can increase yields and thus reduce the area needed for crop production. The surplus area c...
Article
Increased methane yields and enhanced ensilability are reasons in favour of very short cutting lengths when chopping crops for biogas utilisation, though this also leads to higher expenditure at harvest. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of very short chopping lengths in maize harvesting on capacities, labour time requirements...
Book
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Vor dem Hintergrund des globalen Wandels und damit einhergehender Landnutzungsänderungen ist es das Ziel dieses Kapitels, geeignete Anpassungsstrategien zur verbesserten Nutzung und Optimierung agrarischer Ökosysteme zu entwickeln. Solche Strategien werden umso wichtiger, je mehr der Einfl uss des globalen Wandels – besonders als Klimawandel und La...
Article
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This study presents a cradle-to-gate assessment of the energy balances and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of Indonesian palm oil biodiesel production, including the stages of land-use change (LUC), agricultural phase, transportation, milling, biodiesel processing, and comparing the results from different farming systems, including company plantatio...
Article
Landscape management grass is generally harvested late, resulting in unfavorable composition for many utilization purposes. This study explores various technical concepts of biogas production and their economic viability. The Lower Oder Valley National Park is taken here as an example. This National Park in North-East Germany comprises large grassl...
Article
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The composition of feedstock for biogas plants has changed during recent years. There has been an increase in the share of energy crops and residue from agriculture. As a consequence the contents of digesters are less fluid and hence, the effort for mixing has increased. Applying enzymes seems to be a promising way of improving fluidity. In this st...
Article
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The present study explores whether regional water resources can be used more efficiently by Brandenburg's agricultural systems. A systematic analysis of measures to raise the water efficiency follows the description of agriculture in Brandenburg today. Brandenburg's agricultural systems are separated into three sections: soils, plant production and...
Article
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The working group "Adaptation to Climate Change" at the Leibniz-Institute for Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim (ATB) is introduced. This group calculates the water footprint for agricultural processes and farms, distinguished into green water footprint, blue water footprint, and dilution water footprint. The green and blue water demand of a...
Article
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Ensiling is an appropriate way of preserving feedstock for anaerobic digestion. Biological and chemical silage additives were used to improve silage quality and to prevent silage losses due to aerobic instability. Lab-scale experiments were conducted using alfalfa, grass and maize. Silages without additives and with chemical and biological additive...
Article
The aim of this review is to summarize current knowledge on suitability and sustainability of grassland biomass for combustion. In the first section grassland management for solid biofuel as well as information on harvest, postharvest and firing technology are described. An extensive grassland management system with one late cut and low level of fe...
Article
Grassland biomass is suitable in numerous ways for producing energy. It is well established as feedstock for biogas production. The aim of this review is to summarize current knowledge on suitability and sustainability of grassland biomass for anaerobic digestion. In the first section grassland management for biogas feedstock as well as specifics o...
Article
A rising demand for feedstock due to the increasing number of biogas plants in Germany and problems with utilization of grass from landscape und nature protection areas have led to considerations to exploit landscape management grass as a feedstock for anaerobic digestion. However, late harvesting time and adverse concentration of important substan...
Article
Biogas production is a suitable way of energetic use of surplus grassland. The influence of grass species, cutting periods, intensity of grassland use, and ensiling additives on biogas and methane yields was investigated in combined field and laboratory tests. Methane yields of grassland biomass vary in a wide range, mainly depending on the intensi...