Abstract:
In order to improve the comprehensive utilization of hulless barley straw, KOH and NH
3·H
2O were selected as solid-state pretreatment reagents for hulless barley straw in this study, and the methane production in medium-temperature batch anaerobic fermentation was explored. Moreover, the Box-Behnken response surface method was used to investigate the interactive impact of different concentrations of KOH and NH
3·H
2O and pretreatment time on the accumulative methane production of hulless barley straw. The results showed the overall effect of each factor on the cumulative methane production was as follows: NH
3·H
2O concentration > KOH concentration > pretreatment time. The optimal treatment conditions for hulless barley straw were KOH concentration of 5.13%, NH
3·H
2O concentration of 3.35%, and pretreatment time of 13.87 h. The cumulative methane production under these optimal conditions was 282.34 mL/g (measured as VS), which was similar to the predicted value of 286.4 mL/g. The relative error between the predicted and actual values was <5%, indicating that the model accurately estimated methane yields. The combined pretreatment of KOH and NH
3·H
2O significantly increased the methane production from anaerobic fermentation of hulless barley straw (
P<0.05). Specifically, the cumulative methane production was 7.59%, 20.82% and 70.78% higher than that of 7% KOH single pretreatment, 5% NH
3·H
2O single pretreatment and no treatment, respectively. In the meantime, the combined pretreatment also significantly degraded lignin (the degradation rate is 29.21%). Moreover, the cost of pretreatment agents can be partially recovered, and the pollution of environment can be reduced due to the increased digestate nutritional value because of the residual K and N in the digestate after anaerobic fermentation. The results show the Box-Behnken response surface method can better optimize the pretreatment conditions of anaerobic fermentation of hulless barley straw. The combined pretreatment of KOH and NH
3·H
2O is an efficient method to produce biomethane and environmental-friendly lignocellulosic waste.