Enhancement of Pretreatment Feasibility of Lignocellulosic Substrates for Biogas Production with Alkaline Lake Water

Year 2025, Volume: 30 Issue: 2, 636 - 646, 31.08.2025

Ozan Bekmezci , Zehra Şapcı , Ezgi Piro , Hülya Durmaz

https://doi.org/10.53433/yyufbed.1637125

Abstract

To improve the biogas efficiency from lignocellulosic feedstock, an alkaline pretreatment method was investigated based on the sustainable use of a natural resource. A new aspect of this study is the use of water from Lake Van (Lake Van Water, LVW), the world's largest alkaline lake with a surface area of 3,755 km2, located in an agricultural area, instead of alkaline solutions made with chemicals in laboratories. Wheat straw is the main cultivated waste as lignocellulosic feedstock and was also selected for this experiment. The alkaline pretreatment was carried out on a pulverised straw (2 cm max) with the LVW and alkaline water (NaOH solution). The experimental pretreatments were carried out for 120 h at a temperature of 37 °C in a climate-controlled room. Batch tests for anaerobic digestion were conducted for 60 days under mesophilic conditions (37 °C) to assess biochemical methane potentials. The methane yield of both types of pretreated wheat straw gave higher values than untreated wheat straw. It was also indicated that the WS pretreated with the LVW had a higher methane yield than the WS pretreated with the NaOH solution. In this study, an economic feasibility evaluation was also conducted. The LVW was determined to be a better economic alternative to NaOH for the pretreatment of wheat straw, a model lignocellulosic biogas substrate.

Keywords

Alkaline pretreatment , Biomethane yield , Lake Van , Wheat straw

Thanks

Authors would like to thank to Fethi ÖZDEMİR (the manager of Adabağ Farm) for supplying inoculation seed and information about the farm; to Tayfun Manto for his help on construction costs; To Erbil Özdemir for his help for illustrations. The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript. This project was financed by personal means of authors (Ozan K. Bekmezci and Hülya Durmaz). All experiments and chemical analysis were performed at the laboratory of the Environmental Engineering Department of Bitlis Eren University. Author Contributions (CRediT) Ozan K. Bekmezci: Lead author, conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, supervision, visualization, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing. Zehra Sapci: Conceptualization, methodology, data curation, validation, writing – original draft, writing – review & editing. Ezgi Piro: Investigation, visualization. Hülya Durmaz: Funding acquisition, resources, supervision, writing – review & editing.

Lignoselülozik Substratlardan Biyogaz Üretiminde Ön Arıtma Fizibilitesinin Alkali Göl Suyuyla Artırılması

Abstract

Lignoselülozik hammaddelerden biyogaz üretim verimliliğini artırmak için sürdürülebilir doğal bir kaynağın kullanımına dayanan bir alkali ön-arıtım yöntemi incelenmiştir. Dünyanın en büyük üçüncü gölü ve birinci sodalı gölü olan Van Gölü’nün alkali suyu bu çalışma için seçilmiştir. Lignoselülozik hammadde olarak başlıca tarım atığı olan buğday samanı kullanılmıştır. Azami 2 cm boyundaki parçalanmış buğday samanlarının alkali ön-artımı Van Gölünün bazik suyu ve laboratuvarda hazırlanan bazik su (NaOH çözeltisi) ile muamele edilerek sağlanmıştır. Deneysel ön arıtımlar, iklim kontrollü bir odada 37 °C sıcaklıkta gerçekleştirilmiştir. Biyokimyasal metan potansiyelinin tespiti için, kesikli anaerobik çürütme deneyleri, mezofilik koşullarda (37 °C) 60 gün süreyle yürütülmüştür. Her iki ön artımdan geçmiş buğday samanında da, ön arıtımdan geçmemiş samana kıyasla daha fazla metan eldesi gözlenmiştir. Aynı zamanda, sonuçlar Van Gölü suyuyla muamele edilen buğday samanının NaOH çözeltisiyle muamele edilenden daha yüksek metan eldesi olduğunu göstermektedir. Bu çalışmanda, bir de ekonomik fizibilite değerlendirmesi yapılmıştır. Sonuçlar göstermektedir ki, biyogaz üretimi için lignoselülozik bir substrat olarak buğday samanın ön-artımında, NaOH yerine Van Gölü suyu kullanımı ekonomik olarak avantajlıdır.

Keywords

Alkali ön-arıtım , Biyometan eldesi , Buğday samanı , Van Gölü

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