Heat Treatment of Organics for Increasing Anaerobic Biodegradability. Annual Report, 1 August 1980-31 December 1982

摘要

The objective of this study is to improve the fundamental understanding of the autohydrolysis process so that it can be used for increasing the bioconvertibility of agricultural and forest residues to methane gas. Autohydrolysis is a thermochemical process that extracts cellulose and hemicellulose from lignocellulosic materials, making them available for bioconversion. Under pressure, at temperatures between 175 exp 0 and 225 exp 0 C, organic acids are produced that lower the pH, thus increasing the hydrolysis of carbohydrates into sugars and their dehydration and condensation products. This study has five phases, each of which was begun during the first year of this three-year study. In phase 1, a semicontinuous laboratory autohydrolysis system was constructed. Phase 2 involves determination of the kinetics of lignocellulose transformation under autohydrolysis conditions. Under phase 3, an anaerobic baffled fermentation reactor was selected and evaluated. Phase 4 consists of the evaluation of agricultural residues, and under phase 5 research on the anaerobic biodegradability of lignin continues. This report presents results from this first year. In most cases, the year was devoted to literature review, experimental design, procedure development, and equipment construction. (ERA citation 08:050844)