Different types of pretreatment of lignocellulosic wastes for methane production

Biotechnological processes for anaerobic digestion of lignocellulosic substrates were performed in a laboratory bioreactor. Bioreactors used were operating at 35 degrees C to follow the process of methane production. Cattle manure and wheat straw were involved in a ratio of 65:35 as a substrate, as well as only wheat straw as a sole substrate. We report on performing two pretreatment techniques to the substrates - chemical with ammonium hydroxide (NH4OH) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) and biological employing white-rot basidiomycetes (Trametes hirsute) before starting the process of anaerobic digestion. The biological method of pretreatment gave the highest cumulative biogas yield for the substrate wheat straw and cattle manure. Chemical pretreatment lead to higher specific biogas yield when only wheat straw was used as a substrate. Both methods were easy to perform and lead to increased biomethane yield in comparison to that obtained with the participation of untreated substrates.