title: Ultrasound pretreatment of filamentous algal biomass for enhanced biogas production.
abstract: The filamentous alga Hydrodictyon reticulatum harvested from a bench-scale wastewater treatment pond was used to evaluate biogas production after ultrasound pretreatment. The effects of ultrasound pretreatment at a range of 10-5000 J/mL were tested with harvested H. reticulatum. Cell disruption by ultrasound was successful and showed a higher degree of disintegration at a higher applied energy. The range of 10-5000 J/mL ultrasound was able to disintegrated H. reticulatum and the soluble COD was increased from 250 mg/L to 1000 mg/L at 2500 J/mL. The disintegrated algal biomass was digested for biogas production in batch experiments. Both cumulative gas generation and volatile solids reduction data were obtained during the digestion. Cell disintegration due to ultrasound pretreatment increased the specific biogas production and degradation rates. Using the ultrasound approach, the specific methane production at a dose of 40 J/mL increased up to 384 mL/g-VS fed that was 2.3 times higher than the untreated sample. For disintegrated samples, the volatile solids reduction was greater with increased energy input, and the degradation increased slightly to 67% at a dose of 50 J/mL. The results also indicate that disintegration of the algal cells is the essential step for efficient anaerobic digestion of algal biomass.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental System Engineering, Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kwanyong
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental System Engineering, Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Phrompol
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chantrasakdakul
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental System Engineering, Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Daegi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: EPS Solution Ltd., 126-1 Pyeongchon-dong, Dongan-gu, Anyang, Gyeonggi-do 431-755, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Mingeun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental System Engineering, Konkuk University, 120 Neungdong-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-701, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: kypark@konkuk.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Ki Young
authors.initials: KY
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D056804:Biofuels / Q000032:analysis*; D018533:Biomass; D019149:Bioreactors; D000460:Chlorophyta / Q000502:physiology*; D008697:Methane / Q000378:metabolism*; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D062065:Wastewater / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D008697:Methane; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Algae; Biogas production; Hydrodictyon reticulatum; Pretreatment; Ultrasound