Anaerobic fermentation of poplar processing residue to produce methane by alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) pretreatment

ABSTRACT

The study evaluated the effects of alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) pretreatment on poplar processing residue for methane production. The delignification of poplar processing residue was used as the basis for evaluation. The experiment considered the pretreatment time (0 h-24 h), the hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) concentration (0.5%-2.0%), and potassium hydroxide (KOH) concentration (1.0%-3.0%) at a temperature of 70°C. Subsequently, anaerobic fermentation experiments were conducted using the pretreated biomass with sludge as the inoculum under mesophilic temperature conditions (37 ± 1°C). The initial feedstock (poplar processing residue) contained 40.31 ± 0.06% cellulose, 31.17 ± 1.59% lignin, and 14.85 ± 0.38% hemicellulose. The AHP pretreatment caused changes in the lignocellulosic content of the feedstock, particularly affecting the lignin structure compared to cellulose and hemicellulose. At a pretreatment time of 18 hours, temperature of 70°C, and concentrations of 2.0% H₂O₂ and 1.0% KOH, the AHP pretreatment resulted in a higher methane production of 237.4 mL per gram. These findings demonstrate that AHP pretreatment is an effective strategy for enhancing methane production from poplar.

KEYWORDS:

• Poplar processing residue
• alkaline hydrogen peroxide
• pretreatment
• methane
• anaerobic fermentation

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research funds of CAF (CAFYBB2021ZA003) and Key Lab. of Biomass Energy and Material, Jiangsu Province (JSBEM-S-202213).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Key Lab. of Biomass Energy and Material [JSBEM-S-202213]; Fundamental Research funds of CAF [CAFYBB2021ZA003].

Notes on contributors

Yue Jiang

Yue Jiang is pursuing her Master in Chinese Academy of Forestry. Her areas of interest include biomass energy engineering and fermentation engineering.

Ning Zhang

Ning Zhang is a researcher in Chinese Academy of Forestry. Her areas of interest include biomass energy and industrial microbiology.

Jianchun Jiang

Jianchun Jiang is an expert of forestry engineering, and honored as an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering. He is a researcher and doctoral supervisor in Chinese Academy of Forestry. His research is focused on biomass chemical utilization and biomass energy conversion technology.