Evaluating the effects of electroporation pre-treatment on the biogas yield from ley crop silage

Exploiting the full biogas potential of some types of biomass is challenging. The complex structures of lignocellulosic biomass are difficult to break down and thus require longer retention times for the nutrients to become biologically available. It is possible to increase the digestibility of the substrate by pre-treating the material before digestion. This paper explores a pre-treatment of ley crop silage that uses electrical fields, known as electroporation (EP). Different settings of the EP equipment were tested, and the results were analyzed using a batch digestion setup. The results show that it is possible to increase the biogas yield with 16 % by subjecting the substrates to 65 pulses at a field strength of 96 kV/cm corresponding to a total energy input of 259 Wh/kg volatile solid (VS). However, at 100 pulses, a lower field strength of 48 kV/cm and the same total energy input, no effects of the treatment were observed. The energy balance of the EP treatment suggests that the yield, in the form of methane, can be up to double the electrical energy input of the process.