Integrated methane production improvement from sugarcane rind by microwave coupled calcium hydroxide pretreatment

Abstract In order to increase the biogas production from sugarcane rind (SCR), microwave coupled Ca(OH) 2 (MCC) pretreatment was applied to pretreat the SCR before batched mesophilic anaerobic digestion. The synthetic biogas was injected into the pretreatment effluent to decrease the inhibition on biogas production caused by calcium, phenols and over-high pH. The results showed that MCC pretreatment can effectively improve both of the rate and methane production when considering both of pretreated SCR and the effluent. The maximum methane production from pretreated SCR was 271.67 NmL CH 4 /g VS, which was 41.13% higher than the untreated SCR. Total methane production from pretreated SCR and the effluent was 25.7% more than untreated SCR based on 100 g of dry SCR. This work will provide a theoretical reference for the resource utilization of SCR for clean industrial application in future.