Effect of Pretreatment on the Properties of Agricultural Waste

Agricultural waste disposal is becoming a problem due to its increasing production and potential pollution. As a kind of biomass, agricultural waste can be used as a sustainable and renewable source of energy. Agricultural waste disposal is of great economic and environmental importance. In the paper, as a typical agriculture waste, animal (pig) manure was pretreated by washing and the properties of the manure sample before and after pretreatment was addressed. The properties of the manure samples prepared depend strongly on washing method. Nearly all the minerals naturally present in the raw manure can be removed by the pretreatment in the sequence of dilute HCl acid and HF acid washing. The demineralizing process by acid washing decreases the volatile yield of the resultant sample. The results indicate that acid washing results in the changes not only in the mineral matters but also in the organic components. The difference observed during the pyrolysis behaviors of the pig samples should be ascribed to the change in the organic components caused by the pretreatment. The minerals present in PM have little effect on its pyrolysis behavior.