OPTIMIZATION OF THE ANAEROBIC DIGESTION OF BIOMASS: A REVIEW

Anaerobic digestion is considered an efficient, cost effective and competitive means of producing renewable energy. Biological conversion of biomass to methane has received increasing attention in recent years. Grasses have been explored for their anaerobic digestion potential to methane. In this review, extensive literature data have been tabulated and classified. The influences of several parameters on the potential of these feedstocks to produce methane are presented. Almost all the land and water grown species examined to date either have good digestion characteristics or can be pre-treated to promote digestion. Lignocellulosic biomass represents a mostly unused source for biogas and ethanol production. Many factors, including lignin content, crystallinity of cellulose, and particle size, limit the digestibility of the hemicellulose and cellulose present in the lignocellulosic biomass. Pretreatments have are used to improve the digestibility of the lignocellulosic biomass. Each pretreatment has its own effects on cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, the three main components of lignocellulosic biomass. Focus is placed on substrate pre-treatment in anaerobic digestion (AD) as a means of increasing biogas yields using today's diversified substrate sources. Current pre-treatment method to improve AD are being examined with regard to their effects on different substrate types, highlighting approaches and associated challenges in evaluating substrate pre-treatment in AD systems and its influence on the overall system of evaluation. WWTP residues represent the substrate type that is most frequently assessed in pre-treatment studies, followed by energy crops/harvesting residues, organic fraction of municipal solid waste, organic waste from food processing and manure. Overall, substrates containing lignin or bacterial cells appear to be the most amendable to pre-treatment for enhancing AD..

[1]  Farzaneh Teymouri,et al.  Understanding factors that limit enzymatic hydrolysis of biomass , 2005, Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology.

[2]  B. Saha,et al.  Hemicellulose bioconversion , 2003, Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology.

[3]  Paul F. Greenfield,et al.  An operational strategy for improved biomethanation of cattle-manure slurry in an unmixed, single-stage, digester. , 2000 .

[4]  J. Grabber.  How Do Lignin Composition, Structure, and Cross‐Linking Affect Degradability? A Review of Cell Wall Model Studies , 2005 .

[5]  Björn Vinnerås,et al.  Identification of the microbiological community in biogas systems and evaluation of microbial risks from gas usage. , 2006, The Science of the total environment.

[6]  M. Gerardi.  The Microbiology of Anaerobic Digesters , 2003 .

[7]  L. D. Baere,et al.  State-of-the-art 2008 - Anaerobic digestion of solid waste , 2008 .

[8]  P Venkateswara Rao,et al.  Attribute based specification, comparison and selection of feed stock for anaerobic digestion using MADM approach. , 2011, Journal of hazardous materials.

[9]  Sotirios Karellas,et al.  Development of an investment decision tool for biogas production from agricultural waste , 2010 .

[10]  Mark T. Holtzapple,et al.  Using lime pretreatment to facilitate the enzymic hydrolysis of corn stover , 2000 .

[11]  Keri B Cantrell,et al.  Livestock waste-to-bioenergy generation opportunities. , 2008, Bioresource technology.

[12]  M. Holtzapple,et al.  Fundamental factors affecting biomass enzymatic reactivity , 2000, Applied biochemistry and biotechnology.

[13]  P. N. Hobson,et al.  Methane production from agricultural and domestic wastes , 1981 .

[14]  D. Hon,et al.  Wood and Cellulosic Chemistry , 1990 .

[15]  L. Ramos.  The chemistry involved in the steam treatment of lignocellulosic materials , 2003 .

[16]  K. McMahon,et al.  Anaerobic codigestion of municipal solid waste and biosolids under various mixing conditions--I. Digester performance. , 2001, Water research.

[17]  J. Parajó,et al.  Hydrothermal processing of lignocellulosic materials , 1999, Holz als Roh- und Werkstoff.

[18]  Xiomar Gómez,et al.  Anaerobic co-digestion of primary sludge and the fruit and vegetable fraction of the municipal solid wastes: Conditions for mixing and evaluation of the organic loading rate , 2006 .

[19]  Y. Y. Lee,et al.  Pretreatment of corn stover by soaking in aqueous ammonia , 2005, Applied biochemistry and biotechnology.

[20]  T. R. Sreekrishnan,et al.  Enhancement of biogas production from solid substrates using different techniques--a review. , 2004, Bioresource technology.

[21]  B. F. Pain,et al.  Mesophilic anaerobic digestion of dairy cow slurry on a farm scale: economic considerations. , 1986 .

[22]  G. Zeeman,et al.  Anaerobic digestion of dairy cow slurry , 1983 .

[23]  Mats Galbe,et al.  Comparison of SO2 and H2SO4 impregnation of softwood prior to steam pretreatment on ethanol production , 1998 .

[24]  J. Linden,et al.  Alkaline and peracetic acid pretreatments of biomass for ethanol production , 1999 .

[25]  D. Argyropoulos.  Wood and Cellulosic Chemistry. Second Edition, Revised and Expanded Edited by David N.-S. Hon (Clemson University) and Nubuo Shiraishi (Kyoto University). Marcel Dekker: New York and Basel. 2001. vii + 914 pp. $250.00. ISBN 0-8247-0024-4. , 2001 .

[26]  Farzaneh Teymouri,et al.  Pretreatment of switchgrass by ammonia fiber explosion (AFEX) , 2005, Applied biochemistry and biotechnology.

[27]  S. Hanai,et al.  Increased digestibility of cedar by pretreatment with peracetic acid and steam explosion , 1988, Biotechnology and bioengineering.

[28]  Charles J. Banks,et al.  The effect of volatile fatty acid additions on the anaerobic digestion of cellulose and glucose in batch reactors , 2005 .

[29]  D. Fulford,et al.  Batch and semi-continuous anaerobic digestion systems , 1992 .

[30]  C. Wyman,et al.  The Effect of Flow Rate of Compressed Hot Water on Xylan, Lignin, and Total Mass Removal from Corn Stover , 2003 .

[31]  Mark T. Holtzapple,et al.  Simultaneous saccharification and fermentation of lime-treated biomass , 2001, Biotechnology Letters.