title: Intensification of biogas production using pretreatment based on hydrodynamic cavitation.
abstract: The present work investigates the application of hydrodynamic cavitation (HC) for the pretreatment of wheat straw with an objective of enhancing the biogas production. The hydrodynamic cavitation reactor is based on a stator and rotor assembly. The effect of three different speeds of rotor (2300, 2500, 2700 rpm), wheat straw to water ratios (0.5%, 1% and 1.5% wt/wt) and also treatment times as 2, 4 and 6 min have been investigated in the work using the design of experiments (DOE) approach. It was observed that the methane yield of 31.8 ml was obtained with untreated wheat straw whereas 77.9 ml was obtained with HC pre-treated wheat straw confirming the favourable changes during the pre-treatment. The combined pre-treatment using KOH and HC gave maximum yield of biogas as 172.3 ml. Overall, it has been established that significant enhancement in the biogas production can be obtained due to the pretreatment using HC which can also be further intensified by combination with chemical treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai 400 019, India.
authors.forename: Pankaj N
authors.initials: PN
authors.lastname: Patil
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai 400 019, India.
authors.forename: Parag R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Gogate
authors.affiliation: University of West Hungary, Institute of Wood Based Products and Technologies, 9400 Sopron, Hungary. Electronic address: levente.csoka@skk.nyme.hu.
authors.forename: Levente
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Csoka
authors.affiliation: Obuda University, Donat Banki Faculty of Mechanical and Safety Engineering, 1081 Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Agota
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dregelyi-Kiss
authors.affiliation: Obuda University, Donat Banki Faculty of Mechanical and Safety Engineering, 1081 Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Miklos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Horvath
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels / Q000032:analysis*; D018533:Biomass; D019149:Bioreactors; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D018547:Plant Stems / Q000737:chemistry; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology; D013010:Sonication; D014908:Triticum / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D012722:Sewage
keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Biogas; Chemical treatment; Hydrodynamic cavitation; Process intensification