Innovating improvements to biogas generation based on lignocellulosic biomass

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Canada has a goal to reach an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. A strategic technology in reaching these goals as this nation is Biogas Generation based on anaerobic digestion. The most abundant biogas source for Canada is lignocellulosic waste from its forestry, food and agricultural sectors but owing to its highly structured nature, this biopolymer is not fully accessible to decomposition by anaerobic digestion without pretreating the carbon source first. Conventional biogas production is relatively expensive because these pretreatments tend to be slow and energy intensive, and still result in considerable amounts of indigestible residues at the end, to be either combusted or discarded.The novelty of the proposed project lies in its scope, researching the synergy of a physical treatment based on screw extrusion combined with biological pre-treatment (fungi/bacteria), simultaneously examined while optimizing CH Four Biogas Inc's anaerobic digestion process, to produce a higher quantity and quality of biogas than currently possible by the industry and doing so, for the lowest energy input and least amount of residuals to impact our environment. Biological pre-treatment methods have been largely ignored due to them being notably slower than chemical methods, even if more benign on the environment and far less likely to interfere with the digestive enzymes in anaerobic digestion. In comparison, extrusion is new as a pretreatment but has shown remarkable potential for destructuring lignocellulose biomass in seconds rather than the hours for milling and at a lower total energy demand. We believe we can innovate even more destructuring in the extruder and now consider the lengthier biological treatment approach while still reaching the same biogas production rate (or better). As a result, the project is expected to produce a much more thorough understanding of the relationship between beneficial physical de-structuring and fungal/bacterial effectiveness than currently available for biogas generation technology. An economically attractive and environmentally benign biogas generation technology would be a revolutionary step forward for the bioenergy sector.