Sustainable Low-Thermal Pretreatment Enhances Substrate Solubilization and Biogas Production : a Case Study with Potato Peel Waste

Low-thermal pretreatment has been recently reported as an environmentally sustainable, energy efficient and chemical free method for pretreatment of complex substrate for anaerobic digestion. In the present study, the effect of low-thermal pretreatment as a sustainable mean was evaluated on potato peel waste (PPW) for enhancing the biomethane production by anaerobic digestion, with special emphasis on accelerating solubilization of COD and carbohydrates. Various temperatures in the mild range (60, 80 and 100°C) with varying pretreatment times (20, 40 and 60 min) at individual temperatures have been thoroughly evaluated to maximize biomethane yield. Results indicated that the lowthermal pretreatment of PPW facilitated the organic matter solubilization in terms of carbohydrates and COD by up to 26.51 and 21.91%, respectively. The low-thermal pretreatment enhanced biomethane production with112 %increase in yield. The maximum of 2.12 fold increase in methane yield was observed at the pretreatment conditions of 100°C and 60