Energy Integration of Thermal Pretreatment in Anaerobic Digestion of Wheat Straw

Alfonso García Álvaro (), César Ruiz Palomar, Israel Díaz Villalobos, Daphne Hermosilla, Raúl Muñoz and Ignacio de Godos ()
Additional contact information
Alfonso García Álvaro: Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, University of Valladolid (UVa), Campus Universitario Duques de Soria, 42004 Soria, Spain
César Ruiz Palomar: Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, University of Valladolid (UVa), Campus Universitario Duques de Soria, 42004 Soria, Spain
Israel Díaz Villalobos: Institute of Sustainable Process, University of Valladolid (UVa), 47011 Valladolid, Spain
Daphne Hermosilla: Department of Forest and Environmental Engineering and Management, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, José Antonio Novais 10, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Raúl Muñoz: Institute of Sustainable Process, University of Valladolid (UVa), 47011 Valladolid, Spain
Ignacio de Godos: Department of Chemical Engineering and Environmental Technology, University of Valladolid (UVa), Campus Universitario Duques de Soria, 42004 Soria, Spain

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 9, 1-14

Abstract: Cereal straw stands out as one of the most abundant and globally distributed agricultural residues. Traditional applications cope with a limited amount of production, leaving the remainder in the field for natural decomposition. Managing cereal straw through controlled biological transformation under anaerobic conditions holds the potential to generate added value in the form of bioenergy. However, the lignocellulosic composition of these substrates poses challenges for organic degradation, often requiring energy-intensive pretreatments. A detailed study with a comprehensive calculation of the overall energy balance of the integrated process is proposed, aiming to provide real added value and replicability. Three scenarios for wheat straw transformation were investigated, incorporating two preliminary pre-treatment stages—mechanical milling and physicochemical steam explosion. Three conditions of pretreatment were essayed, varying the time exposure of the steam explosion. The subsequent energy integration analysis revealed that the process was optimized by up to 15% in the final energy balance when the steam explosion was set to 10 min. The macromolecular composition determination revealed that the thermal pretreatment reduced the lag phase of the hydrolysis step through hemicellulose breakdown.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; biogas; cereal straw; energy integration; thermal pretreatment; steam explosion; waste to energy (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: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/9/2030/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/9/2030/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:9:p:2030-:d:1382579

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().