Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2017 Dec;7(1):72.
doi: 10.1186/s13568-017-0375-4. Epub 2017 Mar 28.

Pretreatment methods of lignocellulosic biomass for anaerobic digestion

Farrukh Raza Amin  1   2   3 , Habiba Khalid  1 , Han Zhang  1   2 , Sajid U Rahman  1 , Ruihong Zhang  4 , Guangqing Liu  1 , Chang Chen  5
Affiliations
Review

Pretreatment methods of lignocellulosic biomass for anaerobic digestion

Farrukh Raza Amin et al. AMB Express. 2017 Dec.

Abstract

Agricultural residues, such as lignocellulosic materials (LM), are the most attractive renewable bioenergy sources and are abundantly found in nature. Anaerobic digestion has been extensively studied for the effective utilization of LM for biogas production. Experimental investigation of physiochemical changes that occur during pretreatment is needed for developing mechanistic and effective models that can be employed for the rational design of pretreatment processes. Various-cutting edge pretreatment technologies (physical, chemical and biological) are being tested on the pilot scale. These different pretreatment methods are widely described in this paper, among them, microaerobic pretreatment (MP) has gained attention as a potential pretreatment method for the degradation of LM, which just requires a limited amount of oxygen (or air) supplied directly during the pretreatment step. MP involves microbial communities under mild conditions (temperature and pressure), uses fewer enzymes and less energy for methane production, and is probably the most promising and environmentally friendly technique in the long run. Moreover, it is technically and economically feasible to use microorganisms instead of expensive chemicals, biological enzymes or mechanical equipment. The information provided in this paper, will endow readers with the background knowledge necessary for finding a promising solution to methane production.

Keywords: Biodegradation; Biogas; Lignocellulose; Microaerobic; Microbial community; Pretreatment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Lignocellulose composition: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Schematic diagram of the pretreatment of lignocellulosic material for biogas production
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Agbor VB, Cicek N, Sparling R, Berlin A, Levin DB. Biomass pretreatment: fundamentals toward application. Biotechnol Adv. 2011;29:675–685. doi: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2011.05.005. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Badiei M, Asim N, Jahim JM, Sopian K. Comparison of chemical pretreatment methods for cellulosic biomass. Procedia Soc Behav Sci. 2014;9:170–174. doi: 10.1016/j.apcbee.2014.01.030. - DOI
    1. Barakat A, Mayer C, Solhy A, Arancon RAD, De Vries H, Luque R, Barakat A, Mayer C, Solhy A, Arancon RAD, De Vries H. Mechanical pretreatments of lignocellulosic biomass: towards facile and environmentally sound technologies for biofuels production. RSC Adv. 2014;4:48109–48127. doi: 10.1039/C4RA07568D. - DOI
    1. Binder JB, Raines RT. Fermentable sugars by chemical hydrolysis of biomass. PNAS. 2010;2010:1–6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0912073107. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cheng JJ, Timilsina GR. Status and barriers of advanced biofuel technologies: a review. Renew Energy. 2011;36:3541–3549. doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2011.04.031. - DOI