Wheat straw was pretreated with either CaO2 or CaO to improve biohydrogen production. Both CaO and CaO2 pretreatments improved the biodegradability of the wheat straw. CaO pretreatment raised the H2 yield by between 48.8 and 163.9% at CaO contents ranging from 2 to 4%. The highest H2 yield [144 mL/g total solid (TS)] was obtained at 121 °C and 6% CaO. In addition, the highest H2 yield from wheat straw pretreated at the same temperature and dosage of CaO2 was 71.8 mL/g TS, which was higher than that of the control group (43.2 mL/g TS), with hot water (121 °C) treatment. Considering pretreatment costs and H2 production potential, CaO was a better pretreatment agent than CaO2.

This work reports methane production from wheat straw pretreated with CaO2/cellulase.