Comparison of various pretreatments of wheat straw for biomethanation

A study was conducted on biomethanation from pretreated wheat straw blended with cattle manure (40∶60). Various pretreatments treatments included like dilute acid treatment, alkali treatment, grinding, and combination of calcium hydroxide with sodium carbonate treatment. Methane yield (m3/kg VS) form these treatments were observed in 5L batch reactors 0.242, 0.336, 0.276, 0.342 respectively compared to the untreated control group which is 0.200 m3/kg VS. The physical structure of wheat straw was also changed by using pretreatments. It is observed that after combination of calcium hydroxide with sodium carbonate treatment the contents of wheat straw as cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin were degraded significantly compare to other treatment taken in present study. It showed that biogas yield improved using combination of 3% calcium hydroxide with 3% sodium carbonate treatment for wheat straw.