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Author

Van Soest

Bio: Van Soest is an academic researcher from United States Department of Agriculture. The author has contributed to research in topics: Forage & Fiber. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 5 publications receiving 2000 citations.
Topics: Forage, Fiber

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A review of the recent developments in the wood pyrolysis and reports the characteristics of the resulting bio-oils, which are the main products of fast wood pyrotechnics, can be found in this paper.
Abstract: Fast pyrolysis utilizes biomass to produce a product that is used both as an energy source and a feedstock for chemical production. Considerable efforts have been made to convert wood biomass to liquid fuels and chemicals since the oil crisis in mid-1970s. This review focuses on the recent developments in the wood pyrolysis and reports the characteristics of the resulting bio-oils, which are the main products of fast wood pyrolysis. Virtually any form of biomass can be considered for fast pyrolysis. Most work has been performed on wood, because of its consistency and comparability between tests. However, nearly 100 types of biomass have been tested, ranging from agricultural wastes such as straw, olive pits, and nut shells to energy crops such as miscanthus and sorghum. Forestry wastes such as bark and thinnings and other solid wastes, including sewage sludge and leather wastes, have also been studied. In this review, the main (although not exclusive) emphasis has been given to wood. The literature on woo...

4,988 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Cornell Net Carbohydrate Protein Model (Chalupa et al., 1991) has developed the need for uniform procedures to partition feed nitrogen into A, B, and C fractions (Pichard and Van Soest, 1977) as mentioned in this paper.

2,282 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Some of the characteristics of dietary ingredients that should be considered when formulating diets for lactating dairy cows and when allocating feeds to different groups of animals on the farm are discussed.

1,360 citations

01 Jan 1985
TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between body size and digestive capacity is used in conjunction with a relationship between abundance and quality of plant food to discuss the relative efficiencies of ruminant and nonruminant digestion at different body sizes.
Abstract: A number of researchers have discussed the importance of the relationship of metabolism and gut capacity to body size to explain diet composition in animals that consume primarily plant material (Short 1963; Prins and Geelen 1971; Janis 1976; Parra 1978; Hanley 1980; Demment 1983). The kinetics of food-particle passage in the gut determines the digestibility of the diet and is dependent upon gut volume and food intake (Van Soest 1982). Gut volume is a constant proportion of body weight (Parra 1978; Demment 1982), while maintenance metabolism (a prime determinant of intake) is a fractional power of body weight (Kleiber 1975). Since these two factors influence retention times of food particles and hence affect the extent of digestion of the diet, body size has been considered as a possible mechanism for interspecific differences in diet (Bell 1970; Hanley and Hanley 1980; Sinclair 1977; Demment 1980; Van Soest 1982). In this paper, the relationship between body size and digestive capacity is used in conjunction with the relationship between abundance and quality of plant food to discuss the relative efficiencies of ruminant and nonruminant digestion at different body sizes. The relative efficiencies of digestion are used as a basis to explain the number of species of ruminant and nonruminant herbivores relative to body weight. While arguments are presented about physiological constraints on extant animal species, the principles discussed are considered as factors that have shaped the evolution of body size in these groups.

1,152 citations