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5-9-2020 Revised manuscript to J Food Bioprod Proc - accepted manuscript.pdf (1.18 MB)

Plasma-assisted pre-treatment of lignocellulosic biomass for anaerobic digestion

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journal contribution
posted on 2020-09-10, 14:18 authored by Alexander Wright, Andrew Rollinson, Dipti Yadav, Szymon Lisowski, Felipe IzaFelipe Iza, Richard Holdich, Tanja RaduTanja Radu, Hemaka BandulasenaHemaka Bandulasena
The conversion of industrial crops to energy has received significant attention recently as a means to reduce carbon emissions and meeting the renewable energy targets. Samples of whole crop maize (Zea mays L.) were pre-treated in tap water using a novel microbubble-enhanced dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma reactor that generates highly reactive species in situ and distribute them using microbubbles. The pre-treated maize was then used as feedstock in batch and continuously-fed mesophilic continuously-stirred anaerobic digesters (AD). Half of the pre-treated samples were washed in deionized water prior to feeding to assess the effect of possible inhibitory by-products generated during pre-treatment. In batch AD experiments, DBD-plasma pre-treated and washed maize produced 18% greater biogas production in comparison to untreated raw samples, and unwashed samples produced 29% lower biogas than the untreated samples. These results suggest the production of inhibitors to the AD process, but biogas production can be enhanced by removing these inhibiting compounds. Continuously-fed AD reactors exhibited no noticeable change in biogas output between raw and plasma-treated maize. For AD reactors operating in batch, or with a relatively long residence time and fed with high lignocellulose feedstocks, plasma-microbubble pre-treatment could enhance biogas output and process efficiency.

Funding

This work was funded by grants POC-HD_RD0300C from Plants to Products network of BBSRC NIBB, BB/L013819/1, and British Council Newton Fund (award ref. 216423359).

School of ACCME, Loughborough University and EPSRC (EP/M507908/1) for PhD studentship.

History

School

  • Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering
  • Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering
  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Department

  • Chemical Engineering

Published in

Food and Bioproducts Processing

Volume

124

Pages

287 - 295

Publisher

Elsevier

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Rights holder

© Institution of Chemical Engineers

Publisher statement

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Food and Bioproducts Processing and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fbp.2020.09.005.

Acceptance date

2020-09-04

Publication date

2020-09-18

Copyright date

2020

ISSN

0960-3085

Language

  • en

Depositor

Dr Hemaka Bandulasena. Deposit date: 9 September 2020

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