Enhancement of biogas production by means of ultrasonic pre-treatment: State of art and review

Abstract

Currently, fossil fuels are being used in an aberrant manner and greenhouse gases are negatively impacting the environment, causing research into renewable energy sources to be pioneered. As highlighted by the International Treaty called the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change during the Conference of Parties (COP) meetings every year, the international community is striving to expedite worldwide climate action by reducing emissions, intensifying adaptation initiatives, and increasing the availability of suitable financial resources. Production of biogas is a way to help overcome these challenges by reducing wastage and preventing environmental damage. The anaerobic digestion technique faces some barriers like elongated reaction times, cost of heating or low biogas yields. Several techniques have been used to enhance the biogas yield. Among these techniques the use of ultrasound technology as a pretreatment in biogas production revolutionized the process with its widespread application, providing an environmentally friendly and low-cost alternative. This paper reviews research studies on ultrasonic pretreatment of several substrates categorized according to different sources, for biogas production and puts an effort to compare and advise various operation parameters. Low frequency ultrasound (10-50kHz) results in an increase between 15-800 % biogas production from several substrates, at varying operation periods of 2-300 minutes. The operators are advised to test different operation conditions to obtain the best yield in real case applications.

Keywords

• Biogas
• ultrasound pretreatment
• substrates

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