Integrative Effects of Sonication and Particle Size on Biomethanation of Tropical Grass Pennisetum purpureum Using Superior Diverse Inocula Cultures

Biogas from the fast growing crop, Pennisetum purpureum, has received considerable attention in Southeast Asia since wastewater and bio-waste materials are almost completely utilized. To overcome slow hydrolysis, a rate-limiting step in anaerobic digestion of lignocellulosic biomass, superior microorganism culture, size reduction, and sonication pretreatment were co-applied. In the first experiment, the selection of anaerobic microbial culture to be used in digestion, so-called inoculum, was carried out. Specific anaerobic activities for hydrolysis and methanogenesis of sludge from different sources, a slurry digester of cattle farm (CF) and a wastewater digester of rubber latex factory (RL) were assessed. Results revealed a remarkable synergistic capability in the combined sludge, adding 10% and 49% to the overall biomethanation efficiency over the individual CF and RL sludges. In the second part, interactive effects of size reduction and sonication intensity were studied. Biomethanation efficiency as methane yield increased by 62% by size and 115% by sonication variation, but when optimally combined an additional gain of 40% was recorded. The regression model generated could estimate the energy yield increase as a function of size and sonication intensity with a satisfactory statistical precision R2 of 0.945