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Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020) 1937–1942 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

ISFM-2018

Effect of Chemical Pretreatment of Sugarcane Bagasse on Biogas

Production
Maninder Kaur, Neetu, Yajvender Pal Verma, Sanchita Chauhan*
Dr. SSB University Institue of Chemical Engineering & Technology, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Abstract

India produces about 352.16 MT of sugarcane annually. Although bagasse, the major byproduct of sugarcane crop is used by
sugar industries itself for operating boilers but still around 3-5% of bagasse remains unutilized which often disposed off in open
or burnt causing various health hazards and environmental pollution. Leftover bagasse still has huge amount of energy potential
which can be further utilized in sustainable way to produce biogas. Using bagasse for biogas production and its by-products is a
cost effective as well as eco-friendly step. In this study the comparison of effects of alkaline pretreatment of sugarcane bagasse
on anaerobic co-digestion of bagasse with cow dung is investigated. The Bagasse is pretreated with 2%(w/v) solution of NaOH
and 2%(w/v) solution of Ca(OH)2 at room temperature for one day. Alkali pretreated bagasse is then mixed with cow dung in
ratio1: 2 and the solid to water is mixed in ratio 1: 3. Then the biogas production from the slurry formed is observed at 350 C and
550 C. Results showed that biogas production is highest from NaOH treated Bagasse followed by Ca(OH)2 treatment and without
treated bagasse at 350C. Further, it has been observed that biogas production at 550C is higher than that at 350C.
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Symposium on Functional Materials (ISFM-2018): Energy and
Biomedical Applications.

Keywords: Lignocellulosic Biomass; Biogas;Anaerobic Digestion; pretreatment;

1. Introduction

India being an agrarian country produces million tons of different types of crops such as rice, wheat, maize
and sugarcane etc. These crops also produce about 611 MT/Year of agriculture residues of which 158 MT/Year can
be considered surplus based on the current utilization patterns and thus available for bio-based industry. The

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 0172-2534914;

E-mail address: srt338@rediffmail.com; sanchita_pu@yahoo.co.in

2214-7853 © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Symposium on Functional Materials (ISFM-2018): Energy and
Biomedical Applications.
1938 M. Kaur et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020) 1937–1942

different types of agro-residues available are sugarcane bagasse (41 MT/year), paddy straw (28Mton/year), wheat
straw (21 MT/year) and cotton stalks (19 MT/Year) [1,2] Although bagasse, the major byproduct of sugarcane crop
is used by sugar industries itself for operating boilers but still around 3-5% of bagasse remains unutilized which
often disposed off in open or burnt causing various health hazards and environmental pollution. Leftover bagasse
having huge amount of energy potential can be further utilized in sustainable way to produce biogas. Using bagasse
for biogas production and its by-products is a cost effective as well as eco-friendly step
Anaerobic Digestion, a proven German technology helps to utilize these agro-residues in a sustainable way
through producing biogas by decomposing these residues in the process of methanogensis. But as most of the
agricultural residues such as rice straw, bagasse etc. are lignocellulosic biomasses, as they are composed of
cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin with low nitrogen content therefore the crystalline structure of their composition
makes the digestibility process slow rendering its utilization for biogas production[3].The literature reveals that the
approximately 44% of the fermentable material is shielded by lignin and due to poor degradation of lignin in
anaerobic digestion process, the rate and extent of digestibility of lignocellulosic materials become incomplete[4,5].
So, certain methods for the pretreatments are required because the crystallinity of cellulose, available surface area,
degree of polymerization etc. are certain factors that needs to be taken care of to make the digestibility of the
biomasses faster to enhance the biogas production.
Physical pre-treatment of the biomasses is the first method frequently used to increase the biogas production.
Physical pretreatment can be done through cutting, ball milling or grinding. In the physical pretreatment the particles
size of the biomass is reduced to very small so that the more surface area is available for the digestibility.
Chemical pretreatment methods include acidic pretreatment and alkali pretreatment to achieve the breakup of
organic compounds and consequently enhanced biogas production [6,7]. Acid pretreatment is quiet effective in
breakdown of lignin but it has some disadvantages such as production of inhibitory by-products and loss of
fermentable sugars due to increased degradation of complex substrates, high cost of acids and additional cost of
neutralizing the acidic conditions. Sodium hydroxide pretreatment is most effective method of chemical
pretreatment as it shows a greater degree of enzyme hydrolysis than that of with other alkaline pretreatments.
This study focuses on the effect of pretreatment of bagasse with alkaline loadings on biogas production at two
different temperatures. For this purpose, the bagasse is pretreated with NaOH and Ca(OH)2 at room temperature for
24 hours. Pretreated Bagasse is mixed with cow dung 1:2 and the total mixture was thus mixed with water in 1:3
ratio and biogas production at 350C and 550C is observed.

2. Materials and Method

2.1 Substrate Characterization:

The sugarcane bagasse for the study was collected from the village of Mohali, Punjab, cleaned and dried for few
days to remove the superficial moisture. The bagasse was physically pretreated through grinding and reduced to very
small particle size of 0.1-2mm measured by sieve mesh prior to being utilized for chemical pretreatment. The
proximate analysis of sugarcane bagasse was done through standard ASTM to determine the total solid and volatile
solids content of the bagasse. As represented in Table.1 the characterization results of bagasse on dry weight basis in
the present study observed that the total solid of bagasse was 90% and that of cow dung was 19% and volatile matter
of bagasse was 84% and that of cow dung was 66%.
The ultimate analysis was done by CHN analysis to determine the carbon and nitrogen content of the bagasse
before mixing with cow dung and after mixing with cow dung. As observed in the Various studies [8,9,10] that
carbon to nitrogen ratio plays an important role in biogas production through anaerobic digestion process. The C:N
ratio of the biomasses varies widely between 32 to 150:1.Further, it has been observed that the microorganisms in
the fermentation process utilizes carbon 25-30 times faster than the nitrogen[9,10]. So, the C:N ratio of 25-30:1 has
been observed optimum for maximum biogas production. As represented in Table 1 the C:N ratio of pure bagasse
was 130:1 and C:N ratio of sugarcane bagasse after mixing with cow dung has been reduced to 29:1.
 M. Kaur et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020) 1937–1942 1939

Table 1. Characterization of Sugarcane Bagasse. ( Dry Weight Basis)

Characterstics Sugarcane Bagasse Cow Dung
Total Solid(%) 90 19
Volatile Solid (%) 84 66
44.32
C:N ratio(pure Bagasse) 130
C:N ratio( after mixing cow dung) 29.99 __

2.2 Pretreatment Process:

The bagasse was then pretreated with 2%(w/v) NaOH solution and 2%(w/v) Ca(OH)2 solution and kept in one
liter beakers (Fig.1) at room temperature for 24 hours. After that the pretreated bagasse washed thoroughly under the
running tap water and dried for 3 days in sunlight [11,12,13]. This is done in order to maintain the pH value as the
pH value measured by digital pH meter (IKA make, Germany) of the bagasse soaked into NaOH observed equal to
10.2 and that of Ca(OH)2 was 10.3. The various studies done by the researchers shows that for the optimum gas
production the pH of the mixture should lies between 6.5 to 7.5 to achieve a high biological activity. Further, the pH
value of the slurry so formed from pretreated bagasse mixing with cow dung and water has pH value of 6.8[15,16].

Fig. 1. Suagarcane bagasse pretreated with 2% NaOH and 2% Ca(OH)2

2.3 Experimental Setup and Procedure:

Three one liter three pockets laboratory scale bio-digester with air tight rubber cork fittings into its opening were
used for the experiment. Thermometer were fitted into one of its opening to measure the temperature of the slurry
and other end opening is fitted with connecting tube so that gas may pass through it. The other end of the connecting
tube was put into the inverted measuring cylinder filled with brine solution. As the gas gets collected in the cylinder
it displaces the brine solution and the amount of displaced solution gives the amount of gas collected in the cylinder.
The readings were taken every alternate day for 30 days. A stirrer was fitted through rubber cork into the centre
opening of the bio-digester so that the slurry could stirred daily [18,19,20].
A weighing balance was used to measure the required mass of cow dung and chemically pretreated Bagasse. The
mercury in glass thermometer of range (0-1100C) fitted into the bio-digester through the cork was used to measure
the daily temperature of the slurry. A digital pH meter (IKA make, Germany) was used to measure the pH of the
slurry.
Three set of digesters were prepared in which one digester contains pure bagasse and second digester consists of
NaOH pretreated bagasse and third digester consists of Ca(OH)2 bagasse . Each type of pretreated and untreated
bagasse is mixed with cow dung in 1:2 ratio and the mixture so formed were mixed with water in 1: 3 ratio. The
constant temperature of the digester was maintained by putting the digesters in water bath settled at 350 C and
readings of all the digesters were recorded for 30 days on every alternate day.
1940 M. Kaur et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020) 1937–1942

3. Effect of Alkaline Pretreatment on Fibrous Structure of Bagasse

FE-SEM images of chemically treated samples as shown in Fig. 2 were taken from Scanning Electron
Microscopy (SU8000 Series, Hitachi make, Japan) at Central Instrumentation Lab, Panjab University, Chandigarh.
The morphological structure of the images shows that the alkaline pretreatment has great impact on the fibrous
structure of bagasse. It is depicted from fig. 2(a) that the bagasse is composed of long, attached bundles of fibers.
When it is pretreated with 2% NaOH the lignocellulosic material gets swelled increasing the internal surface area,
decreasing the degree of polymerization and separation of linkages between carbohydrates and lignin resulting in the
distortion of fiber bundles. Further the breakdown of lignin structure makes the digestibility of organic matter more
rapidly by the methanogenic bacteria as shown in Fig.2(b). The Ca(OH)2 pretreatment of bagasse also results in
breaking the linkages bonding of fiber structure but the effects of NaOH predominates the effect of Ca(OH)2 as
shown from Fig. 2(c) that to some extent the fibers has been distorted but not as much as the distortion takes place in
case of NaOH.

(a) (b)

(c)

Fig. 2. (a)Pure Sugarcane Bagasse; (b) Sugarcane bagasse pretreated with 2% NaOH (c) Sugarcane bagasse Pretreated with 2% Ca(OH)2

4. Results & Discussions

The daily biogas production has been summarized as observed from Fig.3 at temperature 350C and at temperature
0
55 C. The results show that there is increase in biogas production during first 15 days, which could be mainly
caused by degradation of soluble sugar in the substrate. After the first 15 days, there is decrease in the rate of biogas
production which may be attributed to maximum conversion of organic matter content into biogas has been taken
place during this retention period of time. Further, it has been observed that maximum biogas production takes place
from NaOH treated bagasse on15th day of quantity 74 ml/gm of volatile solid(VS) followed by Ca(OH)2 treated
bagasse of value 69 ml/gm of VS and untreated bagasse produces biogas of 41 ml/gm of VS. A The increase in
production of biogas has been observed with increase in temperature from 350C to 55 0C as shown in Fig.3(b). The
 M. Kaur et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020) 1937–1942 1941

degradation rate of organic matter started earlier at 550C as NaOH treated bagasse represents the biogas production
of about 109 ml/gm of VS on 9th day followed by Ca(OH)2 treated bagasse which represents biogas production of 82
ml/gm of VS and that of pure bagasse co-digested with cow dung is 62 ml/gm of VS as shown in Fig.3(b).

Pure pure
120
2% NaOH
2% NaOH
80 2% Ca(OH)2 100

Biogas production (ml)

2% Ca(OH)2
70
Biogas production (ml)

80
60
50 60
40 40
30
20
20
10 0
3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30
0
3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 HRT( days)

HRT(days)

Fig. 3(a) Daily biogas production at temp. 350 C. Fig. 3(b) Daily biogas production at temp. 550C

Fig. 3. (c) Total biogas production at temp.35 0 C and at temp.550C

Fig. 3(c) represents the total biogas production for a period of 30 days’ hydraulic retention time(HRT). It has
been observed that NaOH pretreated bagasse produces the maximum biogas of about 386 ml/gm of VS at 350C and
356 ml/gm of VS at 550C followed by the biogas produced by Ca(OH)2 at 550C amounts to be 363 ml/gm of VS and
334 ml/gm of VS at 350C whereas biogas production from untreated bagasse is 349 ml/gm of VS at 550 C and 322
ml/gm of VS at 350C.

5. Conclusion

The biogas production from alkaline pretreated sugarcane bagasse and untreated sugarcane bagasse co-digested
with cow dung was determined at two different temperatures. The slurry formed using NaOH pretreated sugarcane
bagasse results in highest biogas production at 350C and at 550C followed by Ca(OH)2 pretreated sugarcane bagasse.
It has been observed from this study that alkaline pretreatment is most effective in increasing the biogas yield from
sugarcane bagasse in comparison with untreated bagasse. Although, the NaOH pretreatment on sugarcane bagasse
seems to be most efficient as it is quite effective in breaking the bond-linkages of various fiber structure resulting in
maximum yield of biogas production followed by the effect of Ca(OH)2 pretreatment. Further, it has been observed
that temperature also plays crucial role in increasing the biogas production as observed from this study that the
degradation of organic matter started in the first 9 days at 550C and rate of biogas production is also higher than that
takes place at 35oC.
1942 M. Kaur et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020) 1937–1942

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the funds received from PURSE Grant-II, DST to take up this research work.

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