Volume : IV, Issue : XII, December - 2014

A study on the efficiency of whey water pretreated Parthenium hysterophorus L. as potential feedstock

Ramya R, M P Shree

Abstract :

Among several technologies the anaerobic digestion technology has been proved to be viable and emerged as a promising technology in India, as it requires less capital investment and per unit production cost, as compared to other renewable energies. Mass utilization of Parthenium hysterophorus biomass and environmental friendly synthesis of bioproduct–methane which is of high demand through a biomethanization is a promising approach. Biogas, a product of biomethanization process of organic substrate carried out by a consortium of microorganisms and depends on various factors like pH, temperature, C/N ratio, hydraulic retention time etc. Thus, there is a need to improve the overall efficiency of anaerobic digestion process in the biogas plants. This could be achieved by optimizing several methods such as the various operational parameters, the nutritional requirements of microbes, the pretreatment protocols, the feedstock proportions etc. Crop biomass mainly consists of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin, which act as limitating factors in the process of methanation. Therefore, need for pretreatment protocols to remove the various limitations and to achieve optimized gas production are dealt in the present study. The general process of applying pretreatment is to increase biodegradability and bioavailability of digested materials thus enhancing biogas production in further anaerobic process. For pretreatment of certain type of biomass, the choice of pretreatment technique has to be more efficient both in terms of economical and environmental aspects. Pretreatment has been recognized as one of the most expensive processing steps in conversion of cellulosic biomass to fermentable sugars and at the same time a very crucial step for the biological conversion of plant source into methane. The overall goal of the pretreatment routes being designed and developed is to convert the plant’s raw lignocellulosic sugars in an environmentally sustainable way. Thus in this study, the feasibility of utilizing Parthenium as potential feedstock was examined by using whey water pretreatment protocol. The results obtained with respect to that of C/N ratio, C/P ratio, lignin and holocellulose showed a significant change when compared to the untreated Parthenium biomass.

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Article: Download PDF   DOI : 10.36106/ijar  

Cite This Article:

Ramya R,M P Shree A study on the efficiency of whey water pretreated Parthenium hysterophorus L. as potential feedstock Indian Journal of Applied Research, Vol.4, Issue : 12 December 2014

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