Intracellular disintegration by shockwave pretreatment accelerates dry fermentation

Dry fermentation refers to the process of anaerobic digestion that does not take place in a mixable liquid environment but in stacks loaded into airtight chambers. Since it is difficult for anaerobic consortia to decompose biomass without operating fluid, the process of dry fermentation is time consuming and considered technically inefficient. However, the construction costs of such biogas plants are significantly lower in comparison to conventional continuous technologies. Shockwave pretreatment is a modern method of intracellular disintegration that occurs purely on the basis of physical forces. It was confirmed for the first time that shockwaves are capable of accelerating methanogenesis, even in technologies that do not utilise a process liquid. This finding opens up new opportunities with regards to the processing of feedstock such as solid biowaste.