Journal of Energy Bioscience 2025, Vol.16, No.4, 182-192 http://bioscipublisher.com/index.php/jeb 182 Research Insight Open Access Insights into Increasing Biomass Yield in Energy Maize Xiaojing Yang, Han Liu Modern Agricultural Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China Corresponding email: han.liu@cuixi.org Journal of Energy Bioscience, 2025, Vol.16, No.4 doi: 10.5376/jeb.2025.16.0018 Received: 05 Jun., 2025 Accepted: 08 Jul., 2025 Published: 23 Jul., 2025 Copyright © 2025 Yang and Liu, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Yang X.J., and Liu H., 2025, Insights into increasing biomass yield in energy maize, Journal of Energy Bioscience, 16(4): 182-192 (doi: 10.5376/jeb.2025.16.0018) Abstract The study mainly summarizes some key factors and optimization methods for improving energy corn biomass yield. Appropriate planting density and row spacing can significantly increase the aboveground yield of corn. But how to plant it depends on the corn variety and local climatic conditions, and it cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach. In addition, the amount of nitrogen fertilizer and the time of harvest are also very important. Applying more nitrogen fertilizer appropriately and choosing the right time to harvest can increase the yield and biomethane output. From 1983 to 2017, thanks to new breeding techniques and increased planting density, corn biomass yield increased by about 30%. Among them, breeding has a greater impact on yield than planting density. In heavily polluted soils, applying some humic acid can also help, which can significantly increase corn dry matter yield and energy output. If the management input is high, such as enough fertilizer, the biomass yield will also be higher; however, with moderate input, the energy utilization rate may be better. Some new technologies now, such as remote sensing combined with crop models, can also help us more accurately estimate corn yields over a large area. This is very useful for adjusting field management. If you want to increase the yield of energy corn, it is very important to choose the right variety, arrange the planting density, manage the fertilizer, grasp the harvesting time, and add the help of some modern technology. Keywords Energy corn; Biomass yield; Planting density; Nutrient management; Breeding optimization 1 Introduction As the demand for renewable energy continues to rise, biomass energy has received more and more attention. It is not only renewable, but also widely available and low-cost, and is an important part of the current energy structure transformation. Corn is a high-yield crop with many uses. It is the main material for producing biomass energy, especially in the production of clean energy such as biogas and methane (Herrmann and Rath, 2012; Jankowski et al., 2020; Wyszkowski and Kordala, 2024). Countries like Germany and Poland are growing more and more areas of energy corn, which has become the main raw material for power generation and heating (Herrmann and Rath, 2012; Jankowski et al., 2020). In addition, energy corn can be grown on contaminated land, not only producing energy, but also helping to improve soil (Wyszkowski and Kordala, 2024). The purpose of this review is to sort out the key factors that affect the yield of energy corn. These factors include genes, planting methods and environmental conditions. We hope to clarify several issues through this article: for example, how to improve corn varieties to increase yields, whether it is more appropriate to plant densely or sparsely, how much fertilizer to apply and how to irrigate best, and how light and soil conditions affect yields. At the same time, we will also look at how different management methods and molecular breeding techniques can work together to increase yields. Finally, we will discuss possible directions for achieving high yields in the future, which usually require cooperation among multiple disciplines (Yang et al., 2019; Li et al., 2020; Du et al., 2021; Du et al., 2024; Yan et al., 2024; Saenz et al., 2025). This review talks about a whole set of research results from the genetic level to field planting. We will discuss how genetic improvement of maize affects biomass distribution and photosynthesis efficiency (Li et al., 2020; Saenz et al., 2025), and how planting more densely and using different nitrogen fertilizers affect yield (Du et al., 2021). In terms of irrigation, we will talk about how drip irrigation and integrated water and fertilizer technology can help maize grow faster and accumulate more biomass (Du et al., 2024). In terms of the environment, whether
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