Effect of pre-pulverization treatment of energy crop Miscanthus giganteus on methane fermentation

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to clarify the effect of pre-pulverization on the energy crop Miscanthus Giganteus to increase the biogas production in the biogas plant. Some pulverizers were selected to earn five different pulverization particle sizes of M x g sample. In order to clarify the relationship between each particle size of M x g and methane production potential as a pre-pulverization effect, a batch-type methane fermentation experiment was carried out in the laboratory using 200 mL vials. As a result of the experiment, it was found that the methane production potential for 30 days was increased by pulverizing to 50 µm or less. the methane production potential of over 50µm size was 200 m3-CH4/kg-VS approximately. On the other hand, the methane production potential of M x g of 50µm size and less than 10nm size was 372 m3-CH4/kg-VS and 463 m3-CH4/kg-VS, respectively. Improvement effect of the methan production potential by pre-pulverization for M x g was demonstrated in this study.