Biogas production from N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) pretreated forest residues

Lignocellulosic biomass represents a great potential for biogas production. However, a suitable pretreatment is needed to improve their digestibility. This study investigates the effects of an organic solvent, N-Methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) at temperatures of 120 and 90 °C, NMMO concentrations of 75 and 85% and treatment times of 3 and 15 h on the methane yield. The long-term effects of the treatment were determined by a semicontinuous experiment. The best results were obtained using 75% NMMO at 120 °C for 15 h, resulting in 141% increase in the methane production. These conditions led to a decrease by 9% and an increase by 8% in the lignin and in the carbohydrate content, respectively. During the continuous digestion experiments, a specific biogas production rate of 92 NmL/gVS/day was achieved while the corresponding rate from the untreated sample was 53 NmL/gVS/day. The operation conditions were set at 4.4 gVS/L/day organic loading rate (OLR) and hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 20 days in both cases. NMMO pretreatment has substantially improved the digestibility of forest residues. The present study shows the possibilities of this pretreatment method; however, an economic and technical assessment of its industrial use needs to be performed in the future.