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Biogas Production Potential and Kinetics of Microwave and Conventional Thermal Pretreatment of Grass

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Abstract

Pretreatment methods play an important role in the improvement of biogas production from the anaerobic digestion of energy grass. In this study, conventional thermal and microwave methods were performed on raw material, namely, Pennisetum hybrid, to analyze the effect of pretreatment on anaerobic digestion by the calculation of performance parameters using Logistic function, modified Gompertz equation, and transference function. Results indicated that thermal pretreatment improved the biogas production of Pennisetum hybrid, whereas microwave method had an adverse effect on the performance. All the models fit the experimental data with R 2 > 0.980, and the Reaction Curve presented the best agreement in the fitting process. Conventional thermal pretreatment showed an increasing effect on maximum production rate and total methane produced, with an improvement of around 7% and 8%, respectively. With regard to microwave pretreatment, maximum production rate and total methane produced decreased by 18% and 12%, respectively.

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Acknowledgment

This research was supported by the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (Project 2009AA10Z405).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Key Laboratory of Renewable Energy and Gas Hydrate, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.2, Nengyuan Rd, Wushan, Tianhe District, Guanzhou, 510640, People’s Republic of China

    Lianhua Li, Xiaoying Kong, Dong Li, Zhenhong Yuan & Yongming Sun

  2. Grassland Institute, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100094, People’s Republic of China

    Fuyu Yang

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  1. Lianhua Li
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  2. Xiaoying Kong
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  3. Fuyu Yang
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  4. Dong Li
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Correspondence to Yongming Sun.

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Li, L., Kong, X., Yang, F. et al. Biogas Production Potential and Kinetics of Microwave and Conventional Thermal Pretreatment of Grass. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 166, 1183–1191 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-011-9503-9

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