Importance

Loading Importance Indicators...

Abstract

A method and system for processing biomass comprising lignocellulosic materials (LM), fats, oils, and grease (FOG), and/or waste-activated sludge (WAS) for biogas production. Biomass is maintained in an anaerobic secretome bioreactor with a synthetic microbial community under thermophilic conditions within a specified pH range. The microbial community produces a secretome of exozymes—such as cellulases, hemicellulases, ligninases, lipases, and proteases—that hydrolyze and solubilize portions of the LM, FOG, and WAS, resulting in a liquid effluent containing sugars, amino acids, fatty acid anions, and other intermediates. The thermophilic environment also pasteurizes the effluent, which is subsequently processed in a mesophilic methanogenic digestion stage for biogas production. In this stage, volatile fatty acid anions are further metabolized to yield methane (CH₄), carbon dioxide (CO₂), and bicarbonate ions (HCO₃⁻) as primary products of methanogenesis.

Loading the Abstract Image...

First Claim