Energy performance of an integrated bio-and-thermal hybrid system for lignocellulosic biomass waste treatment

Lignocellulosic biomass waste, a heterogeneous complex of biodegradables and non-biodegradables, accounts for large proportion of municipal solid waste. Due to limitation of single-stage treatment, a two-stage hybrid AD-gasification system was proposed in this work, in which AD acted as pretreatment to convert biodegradables into biogas followed by gasification converting solid residue into syngas. Energy performance of single and two-stage systems treating 3 typical lignocellulosic wastes was studied using both experimental and numerical methods. In comparison with conventional single-stage gasification treatment, this hybrid system could significantly improve the quality of produced gas for all selected biomass wastes and show its potential in enhancing total gas energy production by a maximum value of 27% for brewer's spent grain treatment at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 3 gVS/L/day. The maximum overall efficiency of the hybrid system for horticultural waste treatment was 75.2% at OLR of 11.3 gVS/L/day, 5.5% higher than conventional single-stage system. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.