Abstract

The present work investigates the application of hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) for the pretreatment of wheat straw with an objective of enhancing the biogas production. The hydrodynamic cavitation reactor is based on a stator and rotor assembly. The effect of three different speeds of rotor (2300, 2500, 2700rpm), wheat straw to water ratios (0.5%, 1% and 1.5% wt/wt) and also treatment times as 2, 4 and 6min have been investigated in the work using the design of experiments (DOE) approach. It was observed that the methane yield of 31.8ml was obtained with untreated wheat straw whereas 77.9ml was obtained with HC pre-treated wheat straw confirming the favourable changes during the pre-treatment. The combined pre-treatment using KOH and HC gave maximum yield of biogas as 172.3ml. Overall, it has been established that significant enhancement in the biogas production can be obtained due to the pretreatment using HC which can also be further intensified by combination with chemical treatment.

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