Influence of wet oxidation pretreatment with hydrogen peroxide and addition of clarified manure on anaerobic digestion of oil palm empty fruit bunches

Food and energy requirements are increasing globally, and the challenge is to meet these demands in a sustainable manner. Oil palm has a relatively high productivity, but produces the lignocellulosic residue of empty fruit bunches (OPEFB). In this study, wet oxidation pretreatment is utilized to overcome the recalcitrance of OPEFB during semi-continuous anaerobic digestion (AD) with between 19.7 and 52.7% improvement over the control, and near total cellulose and hemicellulose content could be degraded. Clarified manure, the water phase of cattle and dairy manure after filtration, is further tested for its effect on methane production by providing necessary micronutrients and vitamins. An increase of 49% was found after addition of clarified manure to OPEFB compared to without this addition.

Automated summary

The study utilized wet oxidation pretreatment to improve the anaerobic digestion efficiency of empty fruit bunches, and found that the addition of clarified manure had a positive impact on methane production, resulting in increased methane yield.