Innovating improvements to biogas generation based on lignocellulosic biomass

加拿大的目标是到2050年将温室气体排放量减少80%。实现这些目标的战略技术，因为这个国家是沼气发电的基础上厌氧消化。加拿大最丰富的沼气来源是来自其林业，食品和农业部门的木质纤维素废物，但由于其高度结构化的性质，这种生物聚合物在不首先预处理碳源的情况下无法通过厌氧消化完全分解。传统的沼气生产是相对昂贵的，因为这些预处理往往是缓慢和能源密集型的，并且最终仍然会产生大量的难消化的残留物，要么燃烧要么丢弃。拟议项目的新奇在于其范围，研究基于螺旋挤压的物理处理与生物预处理相结合的协同作用（真菌/细菌），同时优化CH Four Biogas Inc的厌氧消化工艺，以产生比目前行业更高数量和质量的沼气，并以最低的能源投入和最少的残留物影响我们的环境。生物预处理方法在很大程度上被忽视，因为它们明显比化学方法慢，即使对环境更友好，也不太可能干扰厌氧消化中的消化酶。相比之下，挤出作为预处理是新的，但已经显示出在几秒钟内而不是研磨的几小时内并且在较低的总能量需求下使木质纤维素生物质变性的显著潜力。我们相信，我们可以在挤出机中进行更多的创新，现在考虑更有效的生物处理方法，同时仍然达到相同的沼气生产率（或更好）。因此，该项目预计将产生一个更彻底的了解之间的关系，有益的物理破坏和真菌/细菌的有效性比目前可用于沼气发电技术。一种经济上有吸引力且对环境无害的沼气生产技术将是生物能源领域向前迈出的革命性一步。

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.