Aqua Enviro Ltd - Development of a Novel Microwave Hydrolysis Technology to Enhance Anaerobic Digestion Performance and Derive New Feedstock Materials

厌氧消化(AD)是一种将有机物降解为沼气和稳定的、营养丰富的残留物的生物过程。英国政府认识到AD在实现其环境和可再生能源目标方面的重要性，并推出了支持和发展该行业的激励措施。AD中的速度限制步骤是原料的细菌水解(增溶)，与随后转化为甲烷相比非常慢。易于生物降解的材料(即食物垃圾)迅速水解，很好地转化为甲烷。然而，许多底物，如作物残渣、青贮料和粪便，含有可缓慢降解的物质(即纤维素、木质纤维素)，导致甲烷产量减少。因此，加强水解步骤以提高沼气产量、改善性能和增加收入是非常必要的。Aqua Envio发现，由约克生物可再生能源开发中心(BDC)开发的一种新型加压微波水解工艺可用于将能源作物分解为生物燃料，用于对复杂的AD原料进行预处理，以提高加工效率。BDC和Aqua Enviro进行了初步的自筹资金测试，证明了在对玉米青贮料进行前处理时，沼气产量大幅增加了340%。这样的增长将通过获得新的原料、使AD在较小规模下可行以及改善AD经济来彻底改变AD部门。Aqua Enviro希望开发这项技术并将其推向市场。这一概念验证项目旨在为这项技术提供强有力的科学评估和完整的商业案例，使资金/产业合作伙伴能够确保其广泛的商业化。这将包括在不同条件下对一系列原料类型进行微波预处理，以及通过实验室规模试验进行AD工艺评估。该项目的成果将证明投资是合理的，以便进行全面的示范试验。

Anaerobic Digestion (AD) is a biological process which degrades organic material to generatebiogas and a stabilised, nutrient rich residue. The UK Government recognises the importanceof AD in meeting its environmental and renewable energy targets and has introducedincentives to support and develop the industry. The rate limiting step in AD is the bacterialhydrolysis (solubilisation) of the feedstock which is very slow compared to the subsequentconversion to methane. Readily biodegradable materials (i.e. food waste) hydrolyse rapidly,giving a good conversion to methane. However many substrates such as crop residues, silagesand manures contain slowly hydrolysable material (i.e. cellulose, ligno-cellulose) resulting inreduced methane yields. It is therefore highly desirable to enhance the hydrolysis step to boostbiogas yields, improve performance and increase revenue.Aqua Enviro identified that a novel pressurised microwave hydrolysis process developed byYork Biorenewables Development Centre (BDC) to breakdown energy crops for fermentationto biofuels, could be used to pre-treat complex AD feedstock in order to boost processefficiency. BDC and Aqua Enviro carried out initial self-funded tests demonstrating dramaticincreases in biogas yield of up to 340% when pre-treating maize silage. Such increases wouldrevolutionise the AD sector by; accessing new feedstocks, making AD viable at smaller scaleand improving AD economics. Aqua Enviro wishes to develop and introduce this technologyinto the market. This Proof of Concept project aims to produce a robust scientific appraisaland full business case for this technology to enable funding/industrial partners to be securedfor its widespread commercialisation. This will comprise MW pre-treatment of a range offeedstock types under varying conditions and AD process assessment via laboratory scalebench trials. The outputs of this project will justify the investment to move up to full-scaledemonstration trials.