Bio-based carbon improve biogas yield

Collaborative work between Aalto University and Xi'an University in China has lead to important results in increasing biogas production.  Microwave pyrolytic carbon were produced from different organic waste products such as agricultural residuals or waste carton yielding porous carbon with pore sizes of tens of micrometers. Adding this bio-based carbon to a biogas digester increased the biogas yield by 30-70%, but also improved the chemical oxygen demand (COD) rate and digestate stability. The improvement is due to larger specific area of carbon materials which promote localized substrate concentrations. The significant improvement in the anaerobic digestion efficiency can be microscopically attributed to the methanogenesis promoted by the conductive carbon that can facilitate direct interspecies electron transfer between fermenting bacteria and methanogens, accelerating syntrophic acetate metabolism and biogas yield.

The research recently appeared in Energy 164 (2018) 898-909

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