Sugarcane Leaves Dry Anaerobic Fermentation

Abstract:

In order to transform a large number of abandoned sugarcane leaves into biogas energy, dry anaerobic fermentation method and the fermented materials with total solid content of 20% were used in the experiments. The effects of different inoculum concentrations, grassmanure ratios and fermentation temperatures on the biogas yield and methane content were analyzed. Results showed that the fermentation could work normally when inoculum concentration was 30% and 40%. The 40% inoculum concentration had the highest total gas production, but the methane content decreased rapidly during the fermentation anaphase. When grassmanure ratio was 1∶1 and 2∶1, maximum total gas production was obtained, with methane content more than 60%, and the gas production efficiency was significantly higher than the efficiency obtained when grassmanure ratio was 1∶0. Maximum total gas production and methane content were obtained at the fermentation temperature of 35℃. There was little difference in total gas production when the fermentation temperature was at 30℃ and 40℃. The best results of dry anaerobic fermentation of sugarcane leaves were obtained for an optimum processing parameters combination of 30% inoculum concentration, 1∶1 grassmanure ratio and 35℃ fermentation temperature. For all the treatment groups, there was a strong linear correlation between methane content and fermentation time before the methane content reached the highest value. The decrease in methane content was not obvious though the daily biogas yields decreased significantly after the peak of gas production.