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Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2015

The effect of a combined biological and thermo-mechanical pretreatment of wheat straw on energy yields in coupled ethanol and methane generation

Theuretzbacher, Franz; Blomqvist, Johanna; Lizasoain, Javier; Klietz, Lena; Potthast, Antje; Horn, Svein Jarle; Nilsen, Paal J.; Gronauer, Andreas; Passoth, Volkmar; Bauer, Alexdander

Abstract

Ethanol and biogas are energy carriers that could contribute to a future energy system independent of fossil fuels. Straw is a favorable bioenergy substrate as it does not compete with food or feed production. As straw is very resistant to microbial degradation, it requires a pretreatment to insure efficient conversion to ethanol and/or methane. This study investigates the effect of combining biological pretreatment and steam explosion on ethanol and methane yields in order to improve the coupled generation process. Results show that the temperature of the steam explosion pretreatment has a particularly strong effect on possible ethanol yields, whereas combination with the biological pretreatment showed no difference in overall energy yield. The highest overall energy output was found to be 10.86 MJ kg VS-1 using a combined biological and steam explosion pretreatment at a temperature of 200 degrees C. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Lignocellulose; Pretreatment; Effects; Methane; Ethanol

Published in

Bioresource Technology
2015, Volume: 194, pages: 7-13
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCI LTD

    SLU Authors

    • Blomqvist, Johanna

      • The Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

      • Sustainable Development Goals

      SDG7 Affordable and clean energy

      UKÄ Subject classification

      Microbiology

      Publication Identifiers

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2015.06.093

      Permanent link to this page (URI)

      https://res.slu.se/id/publ/68495