This experiment analyzed the effect of ultrasonic pretreatment on anaerobic digestion of barley bagasse. Anaerobic digestion is the breakdown of substrates by microorganisms without oxygen, resulting in the production of biogas to be used as an energy source. This process can be enhanced with pretreatment methods. The experiment determined differences in the anaerobic digestion of untreated and pretreated barley bagasse over 50-days. Differences between the experiments were defined by daily characterizations of the biogas and the digestate. The pretreated reactor yielded a daily average of 164 mL of biogas with a 55% CH4 composition. Sonication parameters must be optimized for the system to be an energy-efficient pretreatment method. The control reactor data will be ready in June.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Muenchow, Kerry Elisa

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-042419-123907

Advisor

• Timko, Michael T.

Year

• 2019

Sponsor

• UNICAMP

Date created

• 2019-04-24

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Chemical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright