Anaerobic digestion of tobacco stalk: biomethane production performance and kinetic analysis

Tobacco stalk, a common agricultural waste derived from the harvest of tobacco, caused serious environmental pollution in China. In this study, the performance of biomethane production and characteristics of four varieties of tobacco stalk were investigated for the first time. The results showed that the highest cumulative methane yield of 130.2mL/g-VS was obtained from Nicotiana tabacum L., Yunyan114, which had lower lignin content than other varieties of tobacco stalk. Moreover, different kinetic models were used to describe the biomethane production process, and it was found that the modified Gompertz model was more suitable to simulate the anaerobic digestion (AD) of tobacco stalk. The findings of this study not only showed a feasible method for minimizing the pollution issues of tobacco stalk waste but also gave fundamental information for future AD application.