The present short communication reports the first attempt of digestate mediated thermo-alkaline pre-treatment of biodegradable bioplastics promoting biomethane production in a Circular Economy perspective. Two different commercial bioplastics were pre-treated at 90 °C for 72 h using anaerobic digestate as alkaline medium and they were then subjected to anaerobic digestion under thermophilic conditions (55 ± 2 °C). Digestate mediated pre-treatment enhanced significantly biomethane production from starch-based shoppers with respect to non-pretreated bioplastic (+30 %), whereas no significant differences were observed for biomethane production of polylactic acid bioplastic. Nevertheless, anaerobic digestion kinetic of polylactic acid was significantly improved by digestate mediated pre-treatment, probably due to the solubilization of the material during its pre-treatment that enhanced its biodegradability under anaerobic conditions. This promising bioplastics' pre-treatment should be further investigated to find the optimal pre-treatment conditions (i.e., temperature, duration) and to carry out a complete energetic assessment.

Thermo-alkaline pre-treatment operated by digestate improved biomethane production of bioplastic / M. Cucina, P. De Nisi, F. Adani. - In: BIORESOURCE TECHNOLOGY REPORTS. - ISSN 2589-014X. - 21:(2023), pp. 101374.1-101374.6. [10.1016/j.biteb.2023.101374]

Thermo-alkaline pre-treatment operated by digestate improved biomethane production of bioplastic

P. De Nisi
Secondo
;
F. Adani
Ultimo
2023

Abstract

The present short communication reports the first attempt of digestate mediated thermo-alkaline pre-treatment of biodegradable bioplastics promoting biomethane production in a Circular Economy perspective. Two different commercial bioplastics were pre-treated at 90 °C for 72 h using anaerobic digestate as alkaline medium and they were then subjected to anaerobic digestion under thermophilic conditions (55 ± 2 °C). Digestate mediated pre-treatment enhanced significantly biomethane production from starch-based shoppers with respect to non-pretreated bioplastic (+30 %), whereas no significant differences were observed for biomethane production of polylactic acid bioplastic. Nevertheless, anaerobic digestion kinetic of polylactic acid was significantly improved by digestate mediated pre-treatment, probably due to the solubilization of the material during its pre-treatment that enhanced its biodegradability under anaerobic conditions. This promising bioplastics' pre-treatment should be further investigated to find the optimal pre-treatment conditions (i.e., temperature, duration) and to carry out a complete energetic assessment.
Anaerobic digestion; Polylactic acid bioplastics; Recycling; Starch-based bioplastics; Waste Management
Settore AGR/13 - Chimica Agraria
2023
Article (author)
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Cucina et al., Bioresource Technology Report.pdf

accesso riservato

Descrizione: Article
Tipologia: Publisher's version/PDF
Dimensione 513.14 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
513.14 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia
Pubblicazioni consigliate

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/1024871
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 2
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact