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To enhance the codigestion of degradation and improve biomethane production potential, sugarcane bagasse and filter mud were pretreated by sodium hydroxide NaOH 1 N at 100°C for 15, 30, and 45 minutes, respectively. Biomethane generation from 1-liter batch reactor was studied at mesophilic temperature (37 ± 1)°C, solid concentrations of 6%, and five levels of mixing proportion with and without pretreatment. The results demonstrate that codigestion of filter mud with bagasse produces more biomethane than fermentation of filter mud as single substrate; even codigested substrate composition presented a better balance of nutrients (C/N ratio of 24.70) when codigestion ratio between filter mud and bagasse was 25 : 75 in comparison to filter mud as single substrate (C/N ratio 9.68). All the pretreatments tested led to solubilization of the organic matter, with a maximum lignin reduction of 86.27% and cumulative yield of biomethane (195.8 mL·gVS−1, digestion of pretreated bagasse as single substrate) obtained after 45 minutes of cooking by NaOH 1 N at 100°C. Under this pretreatment condition, significant increase in cumulative methane yield was observed (126.2 mL·gVS−1) at codigestion ratio of 25 : 75 between filter mud and bagasse by increase of 81.20% from untreated composition.

The present research emphasized the utilization of a novel sequential thermochemical and sonication pretreatment technology to enhance methane production from corn stover. The corn stover was thermochemically pretreated with sodium hydroxide to enhance its lignocellulosic digestibility. Due to thermochemical pretreatment, 65.45% lignin removal and 36.33% hemicellulose solubilization was observed and further five sonication levels were employed (25, 45, 60, 90, and 120 min). All pretreatments were found significant (P < 0.05) to enhance methane production from 14.78% to 73.72% while thermo-NaOH pretreatment with 90 min sonication time was proven as the optimum pretreatment with specific methane production of 320 mL/g volatile solids (VS). Anaerobic digestion process stability was deeply monitored at 3 day intervals via total volitile fatty acids, alcohol production, pH, chemical oxygen demand, and VS removal.