Dry anaerobic digestion of lignocellulosic and protein residues

Abstract

Utilisation of wheat straw and wool textile waste in dry anaerobic digestion (AD) process was investigated. Dry-AD of the individual substrates as well as co-digestion of those were evaluated using different total solid (TS) contents ranging between 6 to 30%. Additionally, the effects of the addition of nutrients and cellulose- or protein-degrading enzymes on the performance of the AD process were also investigated. Dry-AD of the wheat straw resulted in methane yields of 0.081 – 0.200 Nm³CH₄/kgVS with the lowest and highest values obtained at 30 and 21% TS, respectively. The addition of the cellulolytic enzymes could significantly increase the yield in the reactor containing 13% TS (0.231 Nm³CH₄/kg VS). Likewise, degradation of wool textile waste was enhanced significantly at TS of 13% with the addition of the protein-degrading enzyme (0.131 Nm³CH₄/kg VS). Furthermore, the co-digestion of these two substrates showed higher methane yields compared with the methane potentials calculated for the individual fractions at all the investigated TS contents due to synergetic effects and better nutritional balance.