Research Article

Enhanced biogas production from herbal-extraction process residues by microwave-assisted alkaline pretreatment

  1. Xi-Yu Cheng1,2,
  2. Chun-Zhao Liu1,2,*

Article first published online: 16 OCT 2009

DOI: 10.1002/jctb.2278

Issue

Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology

Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology

Volume 85, Issue 1, pages 127–131, January 2010

Additional Information

How to Cite

Cheng, X.-Y. and Liu, C.-Z. (2010), Enhanced biogas production from herbal-extraction process residues by microwave-assisted alkaline pretreatment. J. Chem. Technol. Biotechnol., 85: 127–131. doi: 10.1002/jctb.2278

Author Information

  1. 1

    National Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academic of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P.R. China

  2. 2

    Graduate School of the Chinese Academic of Sciences, Beijing 100093, P.R. China

*National Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P.R. China.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 1 DEC 2009
  2. Article first published online: 16 OCT 2009
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 4 SEP 2009
  4. Manuscript Revised: 3 SEP 2009
  5. Manuscript Received: 9 JUL 2009

Funded by

  • National Basic Research Program (973 Program) of China. Grant Number: 2007CB714301
  • Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Grant Number: KGCX2-YW-337

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Keywords:

  • biogas;
  • digestibility;
  • herbal-extract process residues;
  • hydrolysis;
  • microwave-assisted alkaline pretreatment

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Lignocellulosic wastes such as herbal-extraction process residues (HPR) are not easily utilized by microorganisms owing to their physical shielding of cellulose imparted by the non-digestible lignin. Therefore, there is a great interest to develop an efficient pretreatment technique to disrupt recalcitrant structures of lignocellulosic wastes and improve renewable energy production.

RESULTS: A microwave-assisted alkaline pretreatment (MAP) method has been developed for the enhancement of biogas production from HPR. The maximum cumulative biogas production reached 1477 mL when the HPR was hydrolyzed by MAP for 30 min with an alkali loading of 0.12 g-NaOH/g-HPR, where the maximum weight loss of HPR after biogas fermentation reached 72.1%.

CONCLUSION: The present work demonstrated that MAP is a promising method for improving bioconversion of lignocellulosic wastes to biogas. HPR pretreated by combining microwave irradiation and alkali resulted in releasing more soluble substances from HPR and increasing the accessibility of HPR for anaerobic biodigestion compared with traditional alkaline pretreatment (AP) and microwave-assisted water pretreatment (MWP). Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry

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