Biogas represents a green energy source that has received major attention as an alternative for fossil fuel depletion. In this work, corn crop residues were used as feedstock for biogas production by anaerobic digestion. The effect of alkaline pretreatment was also evaluated. Proximate analysis was performed to inoculum samples in order to determine volatile and total solids content. Experiments were performed in duplicate varying both parameter particle size (0.5 mm, 1 mm, 2 mm, and in natura) and inoculum to substrate ratio (1:1, 2:1, and 3:1). The highest amount of biogas (392.75 mL) was obtained from corn stalk without pretreatment using 1 mm particle size and 1:1 inoculum to substrate (I:S) ratio. In addition, the highest yield (6.29x10-2 m 3 / kg SV substrate) was achieved for pretreated corn leaf biomass using in natura particle size and 3:1 I:S ratio, which confirms that alkaline pretreatment facilitates the hydrolysis stage during the anaerobic digestion process. These results suggested that alkaline pretreatment enhances biogas production from corn crop residual wastes.

The increasing interest in the development of renewable energy sources such as biogas or bioethanol has led to study different lignocellulosic biomass as feedstock. In this work, corn biomass (stalk and leaf) was used to obtain total reducing sugar (TRS) and evaluate its suitability as feedstock for biofuels production. Biomass characterization was carried out by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique in order to determine main components (cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin). For TRS quantification, different biomass particle size (0.5 mm, 1 mm, 2 mm, and in natura) were considered and the effect of alkaline pretreatment was studied in corn stalk, corn leaf, and corn stalk/leaf biomasses. It was found that corn cultivation wastes biomass exhibited high cellulose content of 28.38 g/L and 19.02 g/L for stalk and leaf, respectively. In addition, the highest concentration of TRS (28.89 g/L) was achieved using pretreated stalk/leaf biomass with 0.5 mm particle size indicating that alkaline pretreatment improves the TRS concentration. These results suggested that corn crop residues are an attractive feedstock for producing biofuels.

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