The Effect of Detoxification of Lignocellulosic Biomass for Enhanced Methane Production

Katarzyna Kotarska,Anna Świerczyńska,Wojciech Dziemianowicz

doi:10.3390/en14185650

Katarzyna Kotarska, Anna Świerczyńska + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en14185650

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Journal: Energies	Publication Date: Sep 8, 2021
Citations: 4	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Institute of Agricultural and Food Biotechnology

Abstract

The aim of this research is to examine the effect of lignocellulosic biomass detoxification on the efficiency of the methane fermentation process. Both for corn straw and rye straw, the methane yield was expressed per volume of fermentation medium and per mass of volatile solids (VS) added. Lignocellulosic biomass was subjected of thermo-chemical and enzymatic sequential pretreatments. It was found that methane yield was higher by 22% when using the detoxification process. In these variants, CH4 yield was 18.86 L/L for corn straw and 17.69 L/L for rye straw; while methane yield expressed per mass of VS added was 0.31 m3/kg VS for corn straw and 0.29 m3/kg VS for rye straw. The inclusion of a detoxification step in pretreatments of biomass lignocellulosic increases the degree of organic substance decomposition and enhances methane yield. The results show that a two-step pretreatment, alkaline/enzymatic with a detoxification process, is necessary for the effective generation of high methane concentration biogas.

Highlights

During the alkaline pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis process, differences were noted in the content of polysaccharides, lignin, and simple sugars, which had the potential impact on improving the biomass biodegradability and methane yield
The results showed that the use of the detoxification process causes an increase in methane efficiency, whereas, both for corn and rye straw, the methane yield expressed per volume of fermentation medium was higher by 22%, when using the detoxification process, Table 4
Lignocellulosic substrates have a high potential for the biomethane production, but fibrous lignocellulosic composites limit their use in the anaerobic digestion process

Summary

Introduction

There is a growing interest in the use of lignocellulosic material in biorefining processes, in which lignocellulose can be processed both to second-generation fuels (ethanol and methane) and to other organic chemical compounds [2,3,4,5]. Consider that the worldwide annual production of biomass containing the lignocellulosic structure is approximately 200 × 109 ton per year, which is equal to 2.2 × 1021 Joules. This is 300 times more than the global energy demand [7]

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