Anaerobic digestion of extracts from steam exploded Agave tequilana bagasse.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) in the beverage industry is a proven treatment technology. But adding dissolved organic matter to AD can increase the on-site output of renewable energy. In the tequila industry such waste-derived organic matter can be obtained from semisolid agave bagasse submitted to steam explosion as pretreatment. Vapor at pressure <1.0 MPa is commonly available so that steam explosion can be integrated into extant production schemes. This study investigates the efficiency of agave bagasse hydrolyzation via steam explosion (applying severity factors between 2.4 and 3.7 with 0.98 MPa maximum pressure) as well as the efficiency of the bio-conversion in anaerobic batch assays. The best steam explosion yield was 14.3 ±â€¯0.1 gCOD 100 g-1 (0.98 MPa vapor pressure during 22 min followed by fast pressure release). The average biochemical methane potential (BMP) was 290 mLN gCOD-1 with 74% of the biogas released within seven days.