This experiment examined the effect of sub-critical water hydrolysis as a pretreatment for anaerobic digestion of macauba nut shells for production of renewable methane. Renewable natural gas was made from macauba nut shells with and without pretreatment using subcritical water hydrolysis as the pretreatment. The control reactor had an average solid content of 16.9%, an accumulated volume of biogas of 17.6 liters and an average methane composition of 38%. The pretreatment reactor had an average solids content of 4.4%, an accumulated volume of 22.5 liters and an average methane composition of 67%. The accumulated energy of the pretreated reactor was 97.9 MJ/kg and the control reactor was 4.69 MJ/kg. This shows the pretreated reactor produced 20 times more energy than the control reactor.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Myers, Jordan Lin

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-050420-185254

Advisor

• Timko, Michael T.

Year

• 2020

Sponsor

• Biotar Research Lab
• UNICAMP

Date created

• 2020-05-04

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Chemical Engineering

Rights statement

• In Copyright