Fabiana Passos

Review of feedstock pretreatment strategies for improved anaerobic digestion: From lab-scale research to full-scale application.

When properly designed, pretreatments may enhance the methane potential and/or anaerobic digestion rate, improving digester performance. This paper aims at providing some guidelines on the most appropriate pretreatments for the main feedstocks of biogas plants. Waste activated sludge was firstly investigated and implemented at full-scale, its thermal pretreatment with steam explosion being most recommended as it increases the methane potential and digestion rate, ensures sludge sanitation and the heat needed is produced on-site. Regarding fatty residues, saponification is preferred for enhancing their solubilisation and bioavailability. In the case of animal by-products, this pretreatment can be optimised to ensure sterilisation, solubilisation and to reduce inhibition linked to long chain fatty acids. With regards to lignocellulosic biomass, the first goal should be delignification, followed by hemicellulose and cellulose hydrolysis, alkali or biological (fungi) pretreatments being most promising. As far as microalgae are concerned, thermal pretreatment seems the most promising technique so far.

Pretreatment of microalgae to improve biogas production : A review

Microalgae have been intensively studied as a source of biomass for replacing conventional fossil fuels in the last decade. The optimization of biomass production, harvesting and downstream processing is necessary for enabling its full-scale application. Regarding biofuels, biogas production is limited by the characteristics of microalgae, in particular the complex cell wall structure of most algae species. Therefore, pretreatment methods have been investigated for microalgae cell wall disruption and biomass solubilization before undergoing anaerobic digestion. This paper summarises the state of the art of different pretreatment techniques used for improving microalgae anaerobic biodegradability. Pretreatments were divided into 4 categories: (i) thermal; (ii) mechanical; (iii) chemical and (iv) biological methods. According to experimental results, all of them are effective at increasing biomass solubilization and methane yield, pretreatment effect being species dependent. Pilot-scale research is still missing and would help evaluating the feasibility of full-scale implementation.

Impact of low temperature pretreatment on the anaerobic digestion of microalgal biomass.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of low temperature pretreatment on the anaerobic digestion of microalgal biomass grown in wastewater. To this end, microalgae were pretreated at low temperatures (55, 75 and 95°C) for 5, 10 and 15 h. Biomass solubilisation was enhanced with the pretreatment temperature and exposure time up to 10h. The methane yield was improved by 14%, 53% and 62% at 55, 75 and 95°C, respectively; and was correlated with the solubilisation increase. The pretreatment at 95°C for 10h increased VS solubilisation by 1188%, the initial methane production rate by 90% and final methane yield by 60% compared to untreated microalgae. With diluted biomass (∼1% VS) positive energy balance was not likely to be attained. However, with concentrated biomass (>2% VS) energy requirements may be covered and even surplus energy generated.

Microalgae Conversion to Biogas: Thermal Pretreatment Contribution on Net Energy Production

Microalgal biomass harvested from wastewater treatment high rate algal ponds may be valorised through anaerobic digestion producing biogas. However, microalgae anaerobic biodegradability is limited by their complex cell wall structure. Thus, pretreatment techniques are being investigated to improve microalgae methane yield. In the current study, thermal pretreatment at relatively low temperatures of 75-95 °C was effective at enhancing microalgae anaerobic biodegradability; increasing the methane yield by 70% in respect to nonpretreated biomass. Microscopic images showed how the pretreatment damaged microalgae cells, enhancing subsequent anaerobic digestion. Indeed, digestate images showed how after pretreatment only species with resistant cell walls, such as diatoms, continued to be present. Energy balances based on lab-scale reactors performance at 20 days HRT, shifted from neutral to positive (energy gain around 2.7 GJ/d) after thermal pretreatment. In contrast with electricity consuming pretreatment methods, such as microwave irradiation, thermal pretreatment of microalgae seems to be scalable.

Anaerobic digestion of microalgal biomass after ultrasound pretreatment

High rate algal ponds are an economic and sustainable alternative for wastewater treatment, where microalgae and bacteria grow in symbiosis removing organic matter and nutrients. Microalgal biomass produced in these systems can be valorised through anaerobic digestion. However, microalgae anaerobic biodegradability is limited by the complex cell wall structure and therefore a pretreatment step may be required to improve the methane yield. In this study, ultrasound pretreatment at a range of applied specific energy (16-67 MJ/kg TS) was investigated prior to microalgae anaerobic digestion. Experiments showed how organic matter solubilisation (16-100%), hydrolysis rate (25-56%) and methane yield (6-33%) were improved as the pretreatment intensity increased. Mathematical modelling revealed that ultrasonication had a higher effect on the methane yield than on the hydrolysis rate. A preliminary energy assessment indicated that the methane yield increase was not high enough as to compensate the electricity requirement of ultrasonication without biomass dewatering (8% VS).

Improving biogas production from microalgae by enzymatic pretreatment.

In this study, enzymatic pretreatment of microalgal biomass was investigated under different conditions and evaluated using biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests. Cellulase, glucohydrolase and an enzyme mix composed of cellulase, glucohydrolase and xylanase were selected based on the microalgae cell wall composition (cellulose, hemicellulose, pectin and glycoprotein). All of them increased organic matter solubilisation, obtaining high values already after 6h of pretreatment with an enzyme dose of 1% for cellulase and the enzyme mix. BMP tests with pretreated microalgae showed a methane yield increase of 8 and 15% for cellulase and the enzyme mix, respectively. Prospective research should evaluate enzymatic pretreatments in continuous anaerobic reactors so as to estimate the energy balance and economic cost of the process.

Algal biomass: physical pretreatments

This chapter gives an overview of physical pretreatments applied for enhancing microalgae biofuel production. It is divided into five sections: (1) microalgal biomass, (2) applications, (3) potential biofuels, (4) pretreatments and (5) energy and environmental assessment. First, a general description on microalgae characteristics, structure and classification is given. Secondly, the main microalgae applications are described, with focus on microalgae biofuels: biodiesel, biogas, biohydrogen and bioethanol. Attention is focused on physical pretreatments for improving microalgae biofuels production, including thermal pretreatments (low temperature, high temperature and high temperature with steam explosion) and mechanical pretreatments (ultrasound, microwave, bead mill and high-pressure homogenizer). Finally, energy and environmental aspects for evaluating full-scale viability are addressed.

Biogas from Algae via Anaerobic Digestion

Anaerobic digestion is a promising application of algal biomass for producing bioenergy while allowing recovery of inorganic nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) for reuse. Anaerobic digestion of algae requires pretreatment of the biomass and/or codigestion with carbon-rich cosubstrates, as discussed in this chapter. In the absence of pretreatment, the methane yield is reduced apparently because of the recalcitrance of the algal cell wall. Encouraging pretreatments and codigestion approaches have been developed but require validation at pilot-scale. Improved estimates of the energy demands of the various pretreatments are required to decide if a certain pretreatment is energetically worthwhile undertaking.

Strategies to optimize microalgae conversion to biogas: co-digestion, pretreatment and hydraulic retention time

This study aims at optimizing the anaerobic digestion (AD) of biomass in microalgal-based wastewater treatment systems. It comprises the co-digestion of microalgae with primary sludge, the thermal pretreatment (75 °C for 10 h) of microalgae and the role of the hydraulic retention time (HRT) in anaerobic digesters. Initially, a batch test comparing different microalgae (untreated and pretreated) and primary sludge proportions showed how the co-digestion improved the AD kinetics. The highest methane yield was observed by adding 75% of primary sludge to pretreated microalgae (339 mL CH4/g VS). This condition was then investigated in mesophilic lab-scale reactors. The average methane yield was 0.46 L CH4/g VS, which represented a 2.9-fold increase compared to pretreated microalgae mono-digestion. Conversely, microalgae showed a low methane yield despite the thermal pretreatment (0.16 L CH4/g VS). Indeed, microscopic analysis confirmed the presence of microalgae species with resistant cell walls (i.e., Stigioclonium sp. and diatoms). In order to improve their anaerobic biodegradability, the HRT was increased from 20 to 30 days, which led to a 50% methane yield increase. Overall, microalgae AD was substantially improved by the co-digestion with primary sludge, even without pretreatment, and increasing the HRT enhanced the AD of microalgae with resistant cell walls.