Twin-Screw Extrusion Mechanical Pretreatment for Enhancing Biomethane Production from Agro-Industrial, Agricultural and Catch Crop Biomasses

Arthur Chevalier, Philippe Evon, Florian Monlau, Virginie Vandenbossche and Cecilia Sambusiti ()
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Arthur Chevalier: Laboratoire de Chimie Agro-Industrielle (LCA), Université de Toulouse, INRAE, Toulouse INP, 31030 Toulouse, France
Philippe Evon: Laboratoire de Chimie Agro-Industrielle (LCA), Université de Toulouse, INRAE, Toulouse INP, 31030 Toulouse, France
Florian Monlau: TotalEnergies, PERL—Pôle D′Etudes et de Recherche de Lacq, Pôle Economique 2, BP 47–RD 817, 64170 Lacq, France
Virginie Vandenbossche: Laboratoire de Chimie Agro-Industrielle (LCA), Université de Toulouse, INRAE, Toulouse INP, 31030 Toulouse, France
Cecilia Sambusiti: TotalEnergies, CSTJF, Avenue Larribau, 64018 Pau, France

Waste, 2023, vol. 1, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of mechanical treatment through twin-screw extrusion for the enhancement of biomethane production. Four lignocellulosic biomasses (i.e., sweetcorn by-products, whole triticale, corn stover and wheat straw) were evaluated, and two different shear stress screw profiles were tested. Chemical composition, particle size reduction, tapped density and cellulose crystallinity were assessed to show the effect of extrusion pretreatment on substrate physico-chemical properties and their biochemical methane production (BMP) capacities. Both mechanical pretreatments allowed an increase in the proportion of particles with a diameter size less than 1 mm (from 3.7% to 72.7%). The most restrictive profile also allowed a significant solubilization of water soluble coumpounds, from 5.5% to 13%. This high-shear extrusion also revealed a reduction in cellulose crystallinity for corn stover (i.e., 8.6% reduction). Sweetcorn by-products revealed the highest BMP values (338–345 NmL/gVS), followed by corn stover (264–286 NmL/gVS), wheat straw (247–270 NmL/gVS) and whole triticale (233–247 NmL/gVS). However, no statistical improvement in maximal BMP production was provided by twin-screw extrusion. Nevertheless, BMP kinetic analysis proved that both extrusion pretreatments were able to increase the specific rate constant (from 13% to 56% for soft extrusion and from 66% to 107% for the high-shear one).

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; kinetics; lignocellulosic biomass; mechanical pretreatment; methane potential; twin-screw extrusion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q16 Q18 Q2 Q20 Q23 Q24 Q25 Q28 Q3 Q31 Q38 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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