title: Evaluation of Mediterranean Agricultural Residues as a Potential Feedstock for the Production of Biogas via Anaerobic Fermentation.
abstract: Hydrothermal, dilute acid, and steam explosion pretreatment methods, were evaluated for their efficiency to improve the methane production yield of three Mediterranean agricultural lignocellulosic residues such as olive tree pruning, grapevine pruning, and almond shells. Hydrothermal and dilute acid pretreatments provided low to moderate increase in the digestibility of the biomass samples, whereas steam explosion enabled the highest methane yields to be achieved for almond shells at 232.2 ± 13.0 mL CH4/gVS and olive pruning at 315.4 ± 0.0 mL CH4/gVS. Introduction of an enzymatic prehydrolysis step moderately improved methane yields for hydrothermal and dilute acid pretreated samples but not for the steam exploded ones.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of General and Inorganic Chemical Technology, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece ; 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: Christos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nitsos
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: Laboratory of General and Inorganic Chemical Technology, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece ; Chemical Process and Energy Resources Institute, Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas (CPERI/CERTH), 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece.
authors.forename: Kostas
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Triantafyllidis
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: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods*; D000693:Anaerobiosis / Q000502:physiology*; D056804:Biofuels; D018533:Biomass; D005285:Fermentation / Q000502:physiology*; D008031:Lignin / Q000737:chemistry*; D019083:Mediterranean Region; D008697:Methane / Q000737:chemistry; D013227:Steam
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D013227:Steam; C036909:lignocellulose; D008031:Lignin; D008697:Methane