Energy Converter: Anaerobic Digestion, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Fermentation (ISSN 2311-5637). This special issue belongs to the section "Industrial Fermentation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 2477

Special Issue Editor

Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99163, USA
Interests: biofuel; value-added bioproducts; anaerobic digestion; organic waste treatment; process model
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since Jan Baptita van Helmont first determined that flammable gases could be generated from decaying organic matter in the 17th century, anaerobic digestion (AD) has experienced hundreds of years of study from scientists to determine its mechanisms, theory and function, etc. There are still many unknown factors and challenges because of the complex microbial communities, metabolic pathways and biochemical reactions that hamper the full development of a growing AD technology. Recently, climate change and global warming have made AD technology one of the most attractive solutions worldwide. Currently, AD provides the most mature way to convert organic wastes into sustainable resources including bioenergy and organic fertilizer. Organic wastes mainly come in the form of three categories of biomass: substrates of farm origin, such as manure, crop residues and energy crops; waste from households, restaurants and grocery stores, such as expired food or food waste; and industrial by-products, such as papermill sludge, meat processing waste, brewery wastes, and textile mill fibers. However, economic feasibility is a major obstacle discouraging farmers and waste management companies from using AD technology. 

This economic obstacle can be conquered by producing value-added chemicals and polymers, enhancing biomethane productivities, and reducing equipment and investment costs, etc. AD-based biorefineries and the circular economy have become increasingly popular concepts that ensure the sustainability of the environment and potential for financial gain for the local community. 

The goal of this Special Issue is to publish both recent innovative research results as well as review papers on the production of biogas, value-added products from AD-based biorefineries, microbial communities, reactor design and system control, upgrading, nutrient recovery for AD processes and related mathematical models including, but not limited to, kinetics, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), techno-economic analysis (TEA), and life cycle assessment (LCA), etc.

Dr. Liang Yu
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • anaerobic digestion
  • organic wastes
  • biogas
  • renewable natural gas
  • nutrient recovery
  • volatile fatty acids
  • anaerobic digester
  • bioproducts
  • organic fertilizer
  • solid digestate
  • anaerobic effluent

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Research

13 pages, 1961 KiB  
Article
Enhancement of Anaerobic Digestion of Corn Straw: Effect of Biological Pretreatment and Heating with Bio-Heat Recovery from Pretreatment
by Shanyue Guan, Chao He, Pengfei Li, Panpan Li, Tingting Hou, Zan Gao, Gang Li and Youzhou Jiao
Fermentation 2024, 10(3), 160; https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation10030160 - 11 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1894
Abstract
Biological pretreatment can promote the degradation of biomass and enhance methane production via the subsequent anaerobic digestion. In addition, a large amount of bio-heat can be generated during the pretreatment process to provide heat for the anaerobic digestion process. In this study, composite [...] Read more.
Biological pretreatment can promote the degradation of biomass and enhance methane production via the subsequent anaerobic digestion. In addition, a large amount of bio-heat can be generated during the pretreatment process to provide heat for the anaerobic digestion process. In this study, composite microorganisms were employed for pretreating corn straw. The impact of different pretreatment times and the heat generated by the pretreatment process on subsequent anaerobic digestion were studied. The results show that the maximum temperature of the pretreatment process was 56.2 °C, obtained on day 6. After 14 days of pretreatment, the degradation rate of the pretreatment group increased by 41% compared with the control group. As a consequence, straws with different pretreatment times were used for anaerobic digestion. The group that underwent 6 days of pretreatment and utilized bio-heat generated from pretreatment achieved the highest cumulative methane production of 401.58 mL/g VS, which was 60.13% higher than in the control group without pretreatment. After 6 days of composite microorganism pretreatment, the group that utilized bio-heat achieved a 29.08% increase in cumulative methane production compared to the group that did not utilize bio-heat. In conclusion, this study highlights the potential of biological pretreatment with composite microorganisms followed by anaerobic digestion using bio-heat as an effective method for treating corn straw. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Converter: Anaerobic Digestion, 2nd Edition)
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