title: Evaluation of dried sweet sorghum stalks as raw material for methane production.
abstract: The potential of utilizing dried sweet sorghum stalks as raw material for anaerobic digestion has been evaluated. Two different treatments were tested, a mild thermal and an enzymatic, alone or in combination. Thermal pretreatment was found to decrease the methane yields, whereas one-step enzymatic treatment resulted in a significant increase of 15.1% comparing to the untreated sweet sorghum. Subsequently, in order to increase the total methane production, the combined effect of enzyme load and I/S on methane yields from sweet sorghum was evaluated by employing response surface methodology. The obtained model showed that the maximum methane yield that could be achieved is 296 mL CH4/g VS at I/S ratio of 0.35 with the addition of 11.12 FPU/g sweet sorghum.
authors.affiliation: Biochemical Process Engineering, Division of Chemical Engineering, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, 971-87 Luleå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Leonidas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Matsakas
authors.affiliation: Biochemical Process Engineering, Division of Chemical Engineering, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, 971-87 Luleå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Ulrika
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Rova
authors.affiliation: Biochemical Process Engineering, Division of Chemical Engineering, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, 971-87 Luleå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Christakopoulos
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D019149:Bioreactors; D006801:Humans; D008697:Methane / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D045868:Sorghum / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D008697:Methane