[Effect of alkaline treatment on anaerobic digestion of rice straw]

The biogas yields of rice straw during anaerobic digestion can be improved by alkaline pretreatment, while it increased the cost because of large amount of alkaline. In order to decrease the amount, 3 sets of experiments were performed using straw with alkaline treatment (pretreatment), digested straw with alkaline treatment (post-treatment) and straw digested directly (control). The results showed that cell wall of straw was destroyed by 5% NaOH treated for 48h, the COD (chemical oxygen demand), total nitrogen, NO(3-) -N and NH(4+) -N were increased from 2 311.11, 175.40, 5.02 and 117.82 mg/L to 10488.89, 417.84, 248.64 and 141.44 mg/L respectively. It suggested that not only lignocellulose but also some nitrogenous materials were destroyed or broken down by alkaline treatment. The lignin structure was destroyed through alkaline treatment that caused the decreased lignin, but the crystallinity index (C(r)I) of cellulose increased from 0.592 3 to 0.662 2. The results of anaerobic digestion showed that the total solid of straw decreased 50.47% after anaerobic digestion treatment leading to less workload and only 50% alkaline used. However, the biogas yield of post-treatment and pretreatment were 382.32 mL/g of TS(added) and 375.84 mL/g of TS(added). Lignin content of control increased while decreased in pretreatment and post-treatment. After anaerobic digestion, crystalline of cellulose was destroyed significantly, and crystalline and amorphous of post-treatment were destroyed more severely than that of pretreatment. From all those mentioned above, post-treatment of straw with alkaline was economical and feasible for biogas production.