沼液联合冻融预处理对水稻秸秆理化特性的影响

    Effects of biogas slurry pretreatment combined with freeze-thaw on the physicochemical characteristics of rice straw

    • 摘要: 农业秸秆厌氧发酵生产沼气、氢气潜力巨大,然而受其自身结构影响,秸秆直接厌氧发酵生物质能转化率较低,需要经过前期预处理以打破秸秆木质素的复杂结构,提高秸秆纤维素、半纤维素的利用率。冻融预处理秸秆技术操作简单、预处理效果好,但目前冻融预处理过程常用的酸碱浸泡液易造成潜在环境污染风险。该研究针对中国北方冬季气温低的特点,以水稻秸秆为原料,选取富含氨氮的厌氧发酵副产物:沼液作为浸泡液,模拟北方冬季自然平均最低气温(−20 ℃),基于单因素、正交试验,系统研究沼液浸泡联合冻融预处理水稻秸秆的理化特性及规律。结果表明:沼液联合冻融预处理后,水稻秸秆的木质素结构及分子间氢键发生显著破坏,O-H、C-H、C=C、C=N、N=N、N=O等基团的吸收峰均呈现减弱趋势,水稻秸秆晶型结构未改变,但结晶度显著降低,最低降至29.82%,比较原秸秆结晶度减少21.38%;沼液浸泡过程可将水稻秸秆C/N显著降至30以下,而冻融过程对沼液浸泡后秸秆C/N的影响不显著,最低降至28.19;浸泡时间与冻融循环次数对木质素去除率交互影响显著,而浸泡温度与浸泡时间、液固质量比对挥发性脂肪酸(VFAs)浓度均具有显著交互影响,沼液联合冻融预处理水稻秸秆过程木质素去除率和VFAs浓度最高达到40.06%和4 140 mg/L。研究结果可为北方冬季秸秆冻融预处理的低成本广泛应用及冻融预处理的无害化奠定理论基础。

       

      Abstract: Agricultural straw has surged as one typical by-product of crops with the ever-increasing grain demand. These straws have the great potential to be one of the most important feedstocks for biogas and hydrogen production through anaerobic digestion in the future. The effective treatment of straw can also be realized to produce biofuel and composite organic fertilizer. Among them, the main components of straw are cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. However, the cellulose and hemicellulose in the straw are fused to form the complex polymers, whereas, the lignin can form the complex lignocellulosic carbohydrates in the outermost layers of cellulose and hemicellulose. Both cellulose and hemicellulose can be encapsulated in the inner layers under the strong interaction forces between the molecules and between hydrogen and covalent bonds within the molecular structure. As such, the energy conversion rate of straw can decrease during anaerobic digestion. Therefore, the straw must be pretreated to break the lignin structure before anaerobic digestion. Fortunately, freeze-thaw pretreatment can be expected to simply operate in this case. However, low-temperature refrigeration has high energy consumption, while the commonly used acid-alkali soaking solution is easy to cause the potential risk of environmental pollution. In this study, the soaking solution was taken as the biogas slurry rich in ammonia nitrogen, one of the by-products during anaerobic digestion. The natural average temperature (−20 ℃) was used to simulate northern China in winter. A systematic investigation was made to clarify the effects of biogas slurry soaking and freeze-thaw pretreatment on the physicochemical properties of rice straw, in terms of soaking temperature, soaking liquid-solid ratio, soaking time, and the number of freeze-thaw cycles. The results showed that there was a damaged lignin structure and hydrogen bond of lignocellulose molecules after the pretreated rice straw. A weakening trend was also found in the absorption peaks of O-H, C-H, C=C, C=N, N=N, and N=O groups. The crystal structure of rice straw was almost unchanged, but the crystallinity of rice straw decreased significantly, reaching 29.82% and decreasing by 21.38%, compared with the untreated straw. The C/N ratio of rice straw was significantly reduced to below 30 during biogas slurry immersion. By contrast, there was a relatively small effect of freeze-thaw treatment on the C/N ratio of the immersed rice straw, which was reduced to the minimal 28.19 suitable for anaerobic digestion. The removal rates of lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose, and the volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations increased first and then decreased, with the increase of soaking temperature. The liquid-solid ratio showed a continuous increase trend with the increase of soaking time and freeze-thaw cycles. Soaking time and the number of freeze-thaw cycles had significant interactive effects on the lignin removal, while soaking temperature, soaking time, and liquid-solid ratio had significant interactive effects on the VFA concentrations. The maximal lignin removal rate and VFA concentration reached 40.06% and 4 140 mg/L, respectively, in the pretreatment process of biogas slurry immersion combed with freeze-thaw. Therefore, the practically feasible performance was achieved in the combined freeze-thaw pretreatment of rice straw with biogas slurry soaking. The finding can lay a theoretical foundation for the wide application of low-cost and harmless freeze-thaw pretreatment of straw in northern cold regions.

       

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