Prerequisite of electrohydrolysis pretreatment on lignocellulose terrestrial weed (Ageratum conyzoides) to enhance the methane production and continuous reactor study

Abstract

The current study was performed to explore the electrohydrolysis pretreatment on A. conyzoides. After electrohydrolys pretreatment, reduction of hydrolysis period and enhancement of biogas production was observed. This novel pretreatment also shows the efficiency in terms of increasing the volatile fatty acids (VFA) and soluble chemical oxygen demand (sCOD) as compared with untreated A. conyzoides/control. Highest sCOD and VFA was observed around (750 ± 5 mg/L and 9600 ± 48 mg/L) at 30 V for 20 min, which is 27.08% and 56.66% respectively. Therefore, biochemical methane potential set up was conducted for 50 days, where cumulative biogas production was found to be 3707 ± 30 mL for pretreated substrate with in 40 days and in untreated 2820 ± 25 mL CH4 in 50 days for untreated. During the compositional study, soluble lignin and cellulose increased whereas hemicellulose decreased. Morphological and structural changes were captured under FESEM, XRD and FTIR analysis after pretreatment, which found to be effective after pretreatment. During FESEM, ring-like structure was observed after pretreatment, which might be cellulose ring. In XRD study, reduction of high peak was observed. In FTIR study, broad peak after pretreatment signified the weakening of inter and intra hydrogen bond.