Impacts of Cellulase and Amylase on Enzymatic Hydrolysis and Methane Production in the Anaerobic Digestion of Corn Straw

Xuemei Wang, Shikun Cheng, Zifu Li, Yu Men and Jiajun Wu
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Xuemei Wang: School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory of Resource-oriented Treatment of Industrial Pollutants, International Science and Technology Cooperation Base for Environmental and Energy Technology of MOST, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Shikun Cheng: School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory of Resource-oriented Treatment of Industrial Pollutants, International Science and Technology Cooperation Base for Environmental and Energy Technology of MOST, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Zifu Li: School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory of Resource-oriented Treatment of Industrial Pollutants, International Science and Technology Cooperation Base for Environmental and Energy Technology of MOST, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Yu Men: School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory of Resource-oriented Treatment of Industrial Pollutants, International Science and Technology Cooperation Base for Environmental and Energy Technology of MOST, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Jiajun Wu: School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, Beijing Key Laboratory of Resource-oriented Treatment of Industrial Pollutants, International Science and Technology Cooperation Base for Environmental and Energy Technology of MOST, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 13, 1-12

Abstract: The impacts of enzyme pre-treatments on anaerobic digestion of lignocellulosic biomass were explored by using corn straw as a substrate for enzyme pre-treatment and anaerobic digestion and by utilizing starch and microcrystalline cellulose as substrates for comparative analysis. The cellulase pre-treatment effectively improved the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose, decreased the crystallinity, and consequently showed 33.2% increase in methane yield. The methane yield of starch increased by 16.0% through amylase pre-treatment. However, when the substrate was corn straw, both the efficiencies of enzymes and methane production were markedly reduced by the lignocellulosic structure. The corn straw’s methane yields were 277.6 and 242.4 mL·CH 4 /g·VS with cellulase and amylase pre-treatment, respectively, which was 11.7% and 27.9% higher than that of the untreated corn straw. It may imply that the lignocellulose should be broken up firstly, enzyme pre-treatments could have great potentials when combined with other methods.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; cellulase; amylase; methane yield; enzymatic hydrolysis; biogas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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