Effect of sodium hydroxide pretreatment on physical, chemical characteristics and methane production of five varieties of sorghum

C. Sambusiti, E. Ficara, F. Malpei, J.P. Steyer and H. Carrère

Energy, 2013, vol. 55, issue C, 449-456

Abstract: Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench, represents an interesting substrate for methane production. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of alkaline pretreatment on chemical composition, physical structure and methane production of five varieties of sorghum (S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5). The pretreatment was conducted in closed bottles, at 55 °C for 12 h. Samples were soaked in a NaOH solution at 4 and 10 gNaOH/100 gTS, with a solid concentration of 35 gTS/L. Sodium hydroxide pretreatment led to a reduction of lignin (50–70%), hemicelluloses (18–35%), cellulose (16–45%) and galacturonic acids (up to 100%), for all varieties of sorghum, as also confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analyses. The reduction of lignin content and thereafter the solubilization of cellulose and hemicelluloses, previously observed, can accelerate the disintegration and the hydrolysis steps during anaerobic digestion. Indeed, an increase in the first order kinetic constant was observed by increasing the alkaline dosage (by 40%, 61%, 64%, 54%, and 40% for sorghum S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5, respectively). Nevertheless, the sodium hydroxide pretreatment had no positive effect in enhancing the methane yields (270 ± 13, 335 ± 11, 294 ± 1, 327 ± 9 and 303 ± 24 mL CH4/gVS for S1, S2, S3, S4 and S5, respectively).

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion; FTIR; Sodium hydroxide pretreatment; Sorghum (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544213003368
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:energy:v:55:y:2013:i:c:p:449-456

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2013.04.025

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

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