Low‐Temperature Pretreatment of Lignocellulosic Biomass for Enhanced Biogas Production

Abstract

Readily available lignocellulosic biomass as substrate for biogas plants is gaining popularity amongst biogas plant operators. Results of low‐temperature pretreatment (light cooking) of wheat straw to remove waxes and prepare the biomass for microbial action are described. Benefits of light cooking are low thermal energy demand and low investment cost compared to conventional techniques such as steam explosion. The novelty lies in utilizing the low temperature range 25–100 °C for pre‐soaking the biomass. Two different types of wheat straws were pretreated at varying temperatures and sizes. The results were compared with Buswell's equation for theoretical maximum biomethane yield. Compared to untreated straw, pre‐soaking leads to a significantly higher methane yield. Size reduction combined with light‐cooking does not affect the methane yield in the same manner as pre‐soaking of the biomass.

Impact of COVID‐19 on the Renewable Energy Sector and Mitigation Strategies

“…Such environmental impacts resulted in serious health problems and critical climate changes. Efforts have been devoted worldwide to reduce or eliminate the consumption of fossil fuel through improving the efficiency of the current energy conversion processes 3 , developing efficient environmentally friendly energy conversion devices 4 , 5 , using environmentally friendly materials 6 , 7 , and developing renewable energy (RE) resources such as biomass 8 , wind 9 , geothermal 10 , and solar 11 . Additionally, hybrid RE resources have been widely described for improved energy sustainability 12 .…”

Winter Pea Mixtures with Triticale and Oat for Biogas and Methane Production in Semiarid Conditions of the South Pannonian Basin

“…The reason for this phenomenon is related to the increase in lignin content [40]. Lignocellulosic hydrolysis is generally considered as a rate-limiting step in anaerobic digestion [41][42][43]. Therefore, energy crops need to be pretreated with the purpose of separating and removing lignin from biomass, increasing the porosity of biomass and the conversion rate of enzymes to cellulose, so as to improve the conversion rate of hemicellulose and cellulose in biomass, and finally effectively improve the gas production performance of raw materials [44,45].…”