A comparison of different pre-treatments to increase methane production from two agricultural substrates

C. Sambusiti, F. Monlau, E. Ficara, H. Carrère and F. Malpei

Applied Energy, 2013, vol. 104, issue C, 62-70

Abstract: To enhance the methane production from ensiled sorghum forage and wheat straw, thermal, alkaline and thermo-alkaline pre-treatments were performed in batch mode. Alkaline pretreatment was conducted at 40°C for 24h with the addition of 1% and 10% gNaOH/gTS; thermal and thermo-alkaline pre-treatments at 100°C, and 160°C for 30min, with and without the addition of NaOH solutions at the above dosages. All the pre-treatments tested led to a solubilization of the organic matter, with a maximum concentration (around 30–40% for both substrates) obtained at 40 and 100°C with 10% NaOH. Furthermore, a reduction in the fibrous fractions was observed for both substrates. The highest lignin reduction, compared to untreated samples, was found at 100°C with 10% NaOH dosage (53% and 72% for wheat straw and sorghum, respectively). Under this pre-treatment condition a high hemicelluloses reduction yield was also found (63% for both substrates). The highest increase in methane yield (up to 32%), compared to the untreated substrate was observed at 40°C with 10% NaOH for sorghum. As for wheat straw, significant increases in methane yield were observed at 40°C with 10% NaOH (43%) and at 100°C with 1–10% NaOH (48% and 67%, respectively). According to the results of the preliminary economic analysis, the pre-treatments seemed to be sustainable for both substrates, especially for wheat straw, due to a higher methane yield increase than that of sorghum.

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Methane potential; Pretreatment; Sorghum forage; Wheat straw (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (39)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261912007799
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:104:y:2013:i:c:p:62-70

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.10.060

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().