Effect of Wet, Hemi-Solid, and Solid-State Conditions and Substrate to Inoculum Ratio on Methane Production from Sugarcane Bagasse

Thiago Edwiges and Prasad Kaparaju ()
Additional contact information
Thiago Edwiges: Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Federal University of Technology—Parana, Avenida Brasil, 4232, Medianeira 85884-000, Brazil
Prasad Kaparaju: School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Brisbane, QLD 4111, Australia

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: Sugarcane bagasse (SCB) constitutes up to 28% of the weight of crushed sugarcane, with significant potential for bioenergy production. Solid-state anaerobic digestion with total solids (TSs) over 15% is an interesting technology that can be used to treat agricultural wastes such as SCB, resulting in smaller reactor sizes and lower water consumption. This study investigates methane production from SCB under wet (10% TS), hemi-solid (15% TS), and solid-state (20% TS) anaerobic digestion with substrate-to-inoculum ratios (SIR) of 1, 2, 3, and 4. Batch experiments were conducted under mesophilic conditions (37 °C) to evaluate methane yields, volumetric methane productivity, and kinetic parameters. Results revealed that the highest methane yields—125, 115, and 106 L CH 4 kg VS −1 —were achieved for wet, hemi-solid, and solid-state digestion, respectively. Despite similar methane yields across TS conditions, volumetric methane productivities increased by 118% and 128% from hemi-slid and solid-state digestion, demonstrating their potential for scaling up in commercial biogas plants. The first-order kinetic model best-predicted methane production (R 2 > 0.984), with hydrolysis identified as the limiting step (K hyd ≤ 0.05 d −1 ). These findings highlight the advantages of solid-state anaerobic digestion for lignocellulosic feedstocks like SCB, contributing to bioenergy sustainability and the circular economy.

Keywords: biogas; circular economy; dry digestion; sustainability; waste to energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/3/892/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/3/892/ (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:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:3:p:892-:d:1573966

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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