Impacts of Cellulase and Amylase on Enzymatic Hydrolysis and Methane Production in the Anaerobic Digestion of Corn Straw

• Published in: Sustainability Vol. 12; no. 13; p. 5453
• Main Authors: Wang, Xuemei, Cheng, Shikun, Li, Zifu, Men, Yu, Wu, Jiajun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 06.07.2020
• Subjects: Agricultural production; Alternative energy sources; Amylases; Anaerobic digestion; Anaerobic treatment; Biogas; Biomass; Cellulase; Cellulose; Comparative analysis; Corn; Corn straw; Crop yield; Crystalline cellulose; Efficiency; Enzymes; Hydrolysis; Lignin; Lignocellulose; Methane; Methods; Particle size; Pretreatment; Refuse as fuel; Starch; Straw; Substrates; Germany
• ISSN: 2071-1050; 2071-1050
• DOI: 10.3390/su12135453

The impacts of enzyme pre-treatments on anaerobic digestion of lignocellulosic biomass were explored by using corn straw as a substrate for enzyme pre-treatment and anaerobic digestion and by utilizing starch and microcrystalline cellulose as substrates for comparative analysis. The cellulase pre-treatment effectively improved the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose, decreased the crystallinity, and consequently showed 33.2% increase in methane yield. The methane yield of starch increased by 16.0% through amylase pre-treatment. However, when the substrate was corn straw, both the efficiencies of enzymes and methane production were markedly reduced by the lignocellulosic structure. The corn straw’s methane yields were 277.6 and 242.4 mL·CH4/g·VS with cellulase and amylase pre-treatment, respectively, which was 11.7% and 27.9% higher than that of the untreated corn straw. It may imply that the lignocellulose should be broken up firstly, enzyme pre-treatments could have great potentials when combined with other methods.