Anaerobic Digestion of Wastewater Sludge and Alkaline-Pretreated Wheat Straw at Semi-Continuous Pilot Scale: Performances and Energy Assessment

Christine Peyrelasse, Abdellatif Barakat, Camille Lagnet, Prasad Kaparaju and Florian Monlau
Additional contact information
Christine Peyrelasse: APESA, Plateau Technique, Cap Ecologia, 64230 Lescar, France
Abdellatif Barakat: IATE, Montpellier University, INRAE, Montpellier SupAgro, 34060 Montpellier, France
Camille Lagnet: APESA, Plateau Technique, Cap Ecologia, 64230 Lescar, France
Prasad Kaparaju: School of Engineering and Built Environment, Nathan Campus, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia
Florian Monlau: IATE, Montpellier University, INRAE, Montpellier SupAgro, 34060 Montpellier, France

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-15

Abstract: During the last decade, the application of pretreatment has been investigated to enhance methane production from lignocellulosic biomass such as wheat straw (WS). Nonetheless, most of these studies were conducted in laboratory batch tests, potentially hiding instability problems or inhibition, which may fail in truly predicting full-scale reactor performance. For this purpose, the effect of an alkaline pretreatment on process performance and methane yields from WS (0.10 g NaOH g ?1 WS at 90 °C for 1 h) co-digested with fresh wastewater sludge was evaluated in a pilot-scale reactor (20 L). Results showed that alkaline pretreatment resulted in better delignification (44%) and hemicellulose solubilization (62%) compared to untreated WS. Pilot-scale study showed that the alkaline pretreatment improved the methane production (261 ± 3 Nm 3 CH 4 t ?1 VS) compared to untreated WS (201 ± 6 Nm 3 CH 4 t ?1 VS). Stable process without any inhibition was observed and a high alkalinity was maintained in the reactor due to the NaOH used for pretreatment. The study thus confirms that alkaline pretreatment is a promising technology for full-scale application and could improve the overall economic benefits for biogas plant at 24 EUR t ?1 VS treated, improve the energy recovery per unit organic matter, reduce the digestate volume and its disposal costs.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; batch tests; semi-continuous pilot; pretreatment; energy assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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