Investigating Kinetic Parameters in the Anaerobic Digestion of Sugarcane Bagasse

Abstract

Lignocellulosic biomass has sufficient organic matter to convert into biogas. Abundantly available biomass such as bagasse has the potential to be an alternative renewable energy resource. However, lignin poses a hindrance to their biodegradation through anaerobic digestion which can be fixed by chemical pretreatment.  Anaerobic digestion of chemically pretreated bagasse co-digested with cow dung at a mesophilic temperature in a batch mode process was studied in the present work. Bagasse was pretreated at normal room temperature by soaking it with different concentrations (w/w) (2%, 4%, and 6% concentration) of NaOH. After that slurry was prepared by co-digesting bagasse with cow dung in the ratio 1:2 and water in the ratio of 1:3 fed into four different one-liter digesters for biogas measurement. Gompertz Model was found to have consistency with results obtained from experimental studies as the maximum biogas production potential of 486.53 ml at a rate of 19.8629 ml/day which was found to be highest in the case of 4% NaOH pretreated bagasse.