Perspectives of anaerobic decomposition of biomass for sustainable biogas production: A Review

Abstract

Biogas production from biomass is an eco-friendly approach that offers renewable energy generation, waste recycling, biofertilizer production along with maintaining environmental quality. Anaerobic decomposition is a familiar practice used for biogas production in worldwide, whereas only few substrates were convenient for attaining desired methane concentration in biogas. Hence, further advancements are necessary for the exploration and utilization of various complex organic materials for the purpose. This article gives a clear outlook on potential of various biomass for biogas production, necessity of pretreatment, applicability of microbial/enzyme addition, maintenance of various process parameters, formulation of suitable digester designs and future scope of this area. The livestock wastes and agricultural wastes possess high energy generation potential (71%) and sustainable utilization of such wastes are admirable to commercialize biogas production in future. Hence, selection of biomass through biochemical methane potential (BMP) analysis and biomass pretreatment prior to anaerobic decomposition is adequate to improve the quality and quantity of generated biogas. Addition of effective microorganisms or respective enzymes along with the employment of suitable bioreactors, are other perspectives to enhance decomposition. The single-stage and multi-stage systems possess much attention than other types of reactors since that offers accurate process management at four different stages of decomposition. Moreover, the maintenances of optimum pH, temperature, volatile fatty acids, carbon/nitrogen ratio, etc. are crucial to evade system unsteadiness during decomposition. Since comprehensive mathematical models are appropriate to make the anaerobic decomposition process economically feasible and advancement with these forecasts are adequate to commercialize this technology in the future.