Wheat straw is an abundant agricultural waste that is rich in lignocellulose. However, its waxy surface, highly crystallized structure, and limited surface area make it difficult to be hydrolyzed and used efficiently by microorganisms. Liquid hot water (LHW) pretreatment was studied to explore the feasibility of improving the methane yield of wheat straw in anaerobic digestion (AD). The results showed that the crosslinking structure of wheat straw was broken by LHW pretreatment. Some pores and cracks appeared on the surface of the pretreated wheat straw, increasing the microbial attachment sites. Under different hydrothermal temperatures (150-225 °C) and retention times (5-60 min), the degradation of hemicellulose ranged from 27.69 to 99.07%. The maximum methane yield (201.81 mL CH4/g volatile solids) was achieved after LHW pretreatment at 175 °C for 30 min, which was a 62.9% increase compared with non-treated straw. LHW at high temperatures such as 225 °C was not suitable for the AD of wheat straw. Methane yield results were fitted with the first-order and modified Gompertz equations to evaluate the hydrolysis rate and inhibitory effects of the pretreated materials in AD.
Keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Kinetics model; Liquid hot water (LHW) pretreatment; Wheat straw.