Enhancement of anaerobic biogas conversion by Alkali assisted photocatalytic pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse

Abstract

A cost-efficient and sustainable method for Sugarcane bagasse (SCB) to biogas conversion is needed hour. SCB is abundantly available in our country, and it has huge potential to produce biogas through AD. However, the structural composition of SCB hinders its conversion to biogas. The limitation of structural hindrance to producing biogas can be solved by using various pretreatment methods. In a recent study, AAP pretreatment was conducted to enhance the efficiency of SCB to produce biogas. The effect of AAP pretreatment on disrupting the three-dimensional matrix of the lignocellulosic structure was evidenced via FTIR, XRD and SEM characterization. Furthermore, a self-designed, laboratory-scale biodigester was designed for AD of raw and pretreated samples of SCB. A mixture of SCB and solid-state anaerobic digestate was prepared for AD to produce biogas. The optimum AAP pretreatment condition for maximum delignification and, subsequently, maximum biogas production was at 1.0 % v/v NaOH combined with 0.4 g/L titanium dioxide nanoparticles.