Thermal steam explosion pretreatment to enhance anaerobic biodegradability of the solid fraction of pig manure

The assessment of the biodegradability of thermal steam-exploded pig manure was performed compared to untreated samples. The pre-treatment was performed under different combinations of temperature and time, ranging 150-180 °C and 5-60 min, and used as substrate in a series of batch biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests. Results were analyzed in terms of methane yield, kinetic parameters and severity factor. In all the pre-treatment conditions, methane yield and degradation rates increased when compared to untreated pig slurry. An ANOVA study determined that temperature was the main factor, and the optimum combination of temperature-time of pretreatment was 170 °C −30 min, doubling methane production from 159 to 329 mL CH4/gVSfed. These operation conditions correspond to a severity factor of 3.54, which was considered an upper limit for the pretreatment due to the possible formation of inhibitory compounds, hindering the process if this limit is exceeded.