Effect of high pressure thermal pretreatment on Chlorella vulgaris biomass: Organic matter solubilisation and biochemical methane potential

Pre-treatment techniques used for anaerobic digestion of algae

“…Pre-treated biomass requires lower hydraulic residence time compared with the untreated and hence, low energy input is required. The highest methane production rate was 1.5-fold higher than the untreated sample, and it was achieved at 160°C and 10 min, but temperatures higher than 160°C did not enhance methane production any further [96].…”

“…Sometimes the effects of pre-treatment are not only to increase the methane yields but they are also the fastest. Pre-treated biomass would require short time to achieve high percentages of digestion with regard to the not treated biomass and hence, reduces notably the energy input for the process [96]. Up to date, the literature of algae pre- treatment for biogas production is very scarce and usually with contradictory results, however, there are more studies about pre-treatment technology for other types of biomass and possibly some of these technologies can be adapted to algae pre-treatment.…”

Algaculture integration in conventional wastewater treatment plants: Anaerobic digestion comparison of primary and secondary sludge with microalgae biomass

“…This type of pretreatment is designed to hydrolyze the organic matter and facilitate the anaerobic microorganisms' conversion of organic matter to biogas. In this case, the thermal pretreatment applied has been selected since this methodology is frequently employed for both substrates (Appels et al, 2010;Fdz-Polanco et al, 2008;Mendez et al, 2014a). In fact, a fraction of biogas produced could be directed to the thermal pretreatment required for those biomasses.…”

Microwave Pretreatments of Switchgrass Leaf and Stem Fractions to Increase Methane Production

“…Urea was used to adjust the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C/N) to a level appropriate for the growth of anaerobic microorganisms (Zhang and Zhang 1999). The pH was adjusted to be between 7.0 and 7.5 before anaerobic digestion (Mendez et al 2014). The digesters were flushed with N2-gas to establish anaerobic conditions.…”