Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

Introduction
Biogas is the source of energy that is mainly used for generation of heat or electricity in various
countries and is used as car fuel as well. Main constituent in biogas is methane which has high
calorific value and is cleaner fuel. Biogas production processes are clean, environment friendly
and economic.
Lignocelluloses are major products of different waste streams coming from food processing,
agriculture, forestry and municipals. Biological degradations of this polymer are carried out by
several enzymes such as amylase, cellulase, before further fermentation or digestion to e.g.
ethanol or biogas. However these polymers should be available for the enzymes to achieve
biodegradation. The inherent properties of these lignocellulosic wastes namely, crystallinity of
cellulose, protection by lignin and hemicelluloses make them resistant to the enzymatic attack.
Enzymatic digestibility is related to accessible surface area for cellulose.
Increase in population is leading to increase in fuel consumption and waste generation. The use
of non-renewable energy resources like coal, gasoline has limitation. Hence we are bound to
explore the alternate energy resources such as bio-fuels which has multiple advantages like less
polluting energy source and proper utilization of waste-biomass, solar energy, wind energy etc.
out of which the biofuel production seems to be economically feasible and efficient. In addition
to the energy production, biogas plants are helpful in dealing with the problems of waste
management and help to provide clean environment and decreasing pollution.
To cater the rising energy demands the production of biofuels should be increased and
pretreatment is one of the available solutions. The pretreatment can enhance the bio-digestibility
of the wastes for biogas production and increase accessibility of the enzymes to the materials. It
results in enrichment of the difficult biodegradable materials, and improves the yield biogas from
the wastes.

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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

1. Biogas Production
Biogas production from biomass takes place through anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion is
the complex microbial process taking place in the absence of oxygen. The process converts
organic feedstock into the biogas, which contains about 50-70% methane, 50-30% CO2 and
small amounts of H2S depending upon the feedstock characteristics.
Anaerobic

Digestion

involves

four

following

stages,

Acidogenesis,

Acetogenesis,

Homoacetogenesis and Methanogenesis.

Acidogenesis: It involves hydrolysis of complex polymers (proteins, polysaccharides)

into monomers and oligomers e.g. Sugars, amino acids, peptides and fermentation of
complex polymers to yield hydrogen and carbon dioxide and acetates and also it involves
fermentation of monomers, oligomers to yield propionate, butyrate and fatty acids.

Acetogenesis: It is the conversion of propionates, butyrates and fatty acids into Hydrogen
and carbon dioxide and acetates.

Homoacetogenesis: Homoacetogenesis involves the conversion of Hydrogen and Carbon

dioxide into acetates.

Methanogenesis: It is the final stage of the biogas production process yielding methane
and carbon dioxide from acetates and methane and water from hydrogen and carbon
dioxide.
Table 1: Legends for Fig.1
Legend

Description

Legend

1.1

Hydrolytic bacteria

1.2

Fermentative bacteria

4.1

Acetogenic bacteria

4.2

Description
Methanogenic
bacteria
Hydrogenotrophic
methanogenic bacteria
Aceticlastic
methanogenic bacteria

Homoacetogenic
bacteria
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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

Fig.1 AD Process (Colleran E. 1991a)

2. Enhancing Biogas Production

There are two major ways of enhancing production,
1. Proper Pre-Treatment
Lignocelluloses are major components of feed-biomass. Lignocelluloses are very stable in nature
and hence bacterial or enzymatic attack is not very effective. Hence proper pretreatment of the
lignocelluloses becomes important process in order to achieve maximum biogas production from
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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

the feed. In the process of pretreatment, the biomass is processed by various techniques to
remove the lignin protection, reduce the stability and make biomass accessible for enzymatic
attack.
Crystallinity, accessible surface area, protection by lignin and hemicelluloses and degree of
cellulose polymerization are the effective parameters in the pretreatment of lignocelluloses.
(Taherzadeh and Karimi, 2008)
2. Maintaining the Optimum Operational Parameters
Biogas production can be enhanced by operating the biogas plant at optimum temperatures, pH,
loading rate, agitation etc. Any change in these can adversely affect the production efficiency of
the biogas plant.

pH: It is one of the important factors that affect the growth of microbes in anaerobic
fermentation. During the anaerobic process, CO2 and volatile fatty acids evolved, affect
the pH of the digester. Jain and Mattiasson (1998) found that the CH4 production
efficiency was more than 75% above pH 5.

Temperature: Temperature inside the digester plays an important role in biogas

production process. Anaerobic fermentation can be carried out in different temperature
ranges. But the anaerobes are most active in mesophilic (30-40oC) and thermophilic (5060oC) temperature ranges. (Mital, 1996; Umetsu et al.,1992; Maurya et al., 1994;
Takizawa et al., 1994). Methanogemes are sensitive to sudden thermal changes (Garba,
1996) therefore sudden changes in temperatures should be avoided.

Agitation/Mixing: Mixing devices such as scraper, gas recirculation can help increasing
the biogas production.

In this report Pre-Treatment method mainly Physical Pretreatment along with Size Reduction
Equipments to enhance the biogas production is discussed in detail.

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3. Pre-Treatment Techniques
3.1 Necessity of Pre-Treatment
To understand the necessity of the pretreatment we need to consider the structure of the feed
biomass. Kratky and Jirout (Chem Eng. Technol, 2011) have explained the structure of biomass
which is very easy to understand. They explained it comparing with the reinforced concrete
pillars, cellulose fibers analogous to the metal rods and lignin to the cement matrix. Lignin is
tightly bounded to the carbohydrates by covalent and hydrogen bond. Hence lignin protection
makes the biomass very stable and reluctant to enzymatic attack which results in longer
degradation times and degradation to the lower extent, as low as up to 20 per cent. (Pandey A.,
2009)
Following figure makes the structure of biomass and necessity of pretreatment more clear:

Fig. 2: Effect of Pretreatment on Biomass (Teherzadeh and Karimi, 2008)

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3.2 Factors Affecting the Rate of Biodegradation:
Teherzadeh and Karimi (2008) studied the factor affecting the biodegradation rates and
concluded that following factors play the key role in rate of biodegradation.
1. Crystallinity of Cellulose
The major part of cellulose exists in crystalline form. The crystal form is less accessible
compared to the amorphous part. Therefore it is seen that high crystalline cellulose is resistant to
enzymatic attack and hence less the crystallinity more is the digestibility of lignocelluloses. (Fan
et al.)
2. Accessible Surface Area
Lignocellulosic materials have two types of surface area namely internal surface area and
external surface area. Capillary structures of cellulose fibers determine the internal surface area
while size and shape of the particles decide the external surface area. Drying of fibers result in
irreversible shrinkage of capillary structure reducing the accessible surface area, whereas wet
celluloses has higher area compared to dry. Accessible surface area and its interaction with
enzymes can be limiting in enzymatic hydrolysis.
3. Lignin
Lignin is responsible for structural integrity and rigidity of lignocellulose. Lignin content is
responsible for lignocellulosic materials to resist the enzymatic attack. Hence the delignification
process results in increased enzyme activity.
4. Hemicellulose
Hemicellulose is also a barrier for the enzymatic attack on the cellulose. Removal of
hemicelluloses results in improved the enzymatic hydrolysis.

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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

Fig.3: Lignocellulosic Complexes in Plant Cell Walls (Bochmann and Montgomerry, 2013)

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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

4. Methods of Pretreatment
Pretreatment is a process to remove the lignin and hemecellulosic protection of cellulose, make it
available for enzymatic attack. The process converts the complex organic structures into simpler
molecules which are more susceptible to microbial degradation.
Pre-treatment methods can be classified in to three major categories:
1. Physical Pre-Treatment
2. Chemical Pre-Treatment
3. Biological Pre-Treatment
Also, the combinations of the two or more pretreatment techniques such as Physico-Chemical,
Bio-Chemical Pretreatments can be used to achieve the desired pretreatment.
An economic and effective pretreatment results in enhancement of the solubilization of cellulose
polymer into monomer sugars without any degradation product formation.
Pandey A. (2009) suggested the criteria for selection of proper pretreatment techniques which
takes into account the following factors:

Cost of Operation

Energy Demand

Emissions (Pollution)

In addition to the above mentioned factors, physical properties of feed biomass is also an
important while selecting the suitable pretreatment technique such as initial and final size of
biomass, moisture content etc.
In the following table, we see the comparison between the major three pretreatment techniques.

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Table 2: Comparative study of different pretreatment techniques

Physical Pretreatment

To Increase

Chemical Pretreatment

Hemicelluloses

Surface Area
Aim

Decrystallization

Reduce

Mechanism

Equipments the

Harun

biomass into more

et al.,

components

Conversion of lignin

Sun et al.

Use of microbes to

into soluble fragments.*

degrade the

Swelling of fibrous

cellulose protection

celluloses leads porous

achieved.

biomass.*

Sun
Y.,Cheng
J.,2002

Enhanced biogas production.

chemicals cause many

High energy

problems to the process

requirements

Longer process
time

Toxicity and
corrosiveness of

Disadvantages

lignocellulosic

Hydrolysis of

characteristics are

Advantages

Conversion of

hemicelluloses,

Ref.

accessible

attack.

Using Size

above mentioned

Increment in cellulose
accessibility for enzyme

Reduction

protection

polymerization*

Remove Lignin and

Biological pretreatment

Large space
requirement

Continuous

as well as equipments.

monitoring and

Recovery of chemicals

maintaining pro-

is costly and difficult.

microbe

Singh et
al.

conditions*

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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

Examples

Milling

Shredding

Microwave

Extrusion etc

Acid Pretreatment

Alkaline pretreatment
etc

Use of fungi or
actinomycets

Chrysosporium on
cotton stakes results
lignin degradation

5. Physical Pretreatment Techniques

So far we have seen the necessity of pretreatment, criteria and different techniques for selection
of suitable pretreatment. Now here onwards we will look into various Physical pretreatment
equipments that are responsible for the comminuting the lignocelluloses in order to enhance the
biogas production.
Particle size reduction increases the available specific surface area, reduce the degree of cellulose
polymerization and its crystallinity which increases total hydrolysis yield by 5-25% and reduces
the digestion time by 23-59% (Hendriks and Zeeman, 2009).
The size reduction is usually achieved by chipping, grinding, milling or their combinations. The
energy requirement is the most important parameter which governs the economics of the
pretreatment and it is dependent on final particle size, type of the mill, biomass characteristics.
Yu et al. concluded that in the grinding process, almost all the energy is lost as heat and only up
to 1% energy is actually utilized for size reduction. Hence selection of the mill also becomes
important factor from the economic point of view.

6. Size Reduction Equipments

6.1 Shredders
Screw, Knife and Hammer Shredders and their combinations are most commonly used for
compact, difficult to handle feed stock such as food and food wastes, bones, grass, paper etc.
Most of the biomass grinders operate in rotary action. In addition, Igathinathane et al. developed
a linear sheer action knife based grid which they used for shredding of the corn stakes and switch
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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

grass and reported the lower energy consumption for the same duty by any other equipment. The
reported values of power requirement for linear-sheer action knife shredder are as follows:
For size reduction of corn stake and switch grass respectively
From 203mm to 100mm: 0.48 kWht-1 0.19 kWht-1
From 203mm to 50mm: 1.69 kWht-1 0.49 kWht-1
Whereas the values reported by Schell and Hardwood (1994) for energy consumption to reduce
the papers to final size of 4cm is 15.2 kWht-1

Feed

Screen

Fig. 4: Rotary Shredder Schematic (Kratky and Jirout, 2011)

Various types of knife shredders are considered to be universal for biomass size reduction.
(Kratky and Jirout, 2011)
In the above figure we can see the rotary shredder. The biomass is loaded in between the two
rotary blades. It undergoes sheering and reduction in size takes place. The comminuted product
is then taken out by the screens, opening and sent for further processing.
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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

The following Image, Fig.5 makes the installation and working of rotary shredder clear.

Fig. 5: Rotary Shredder

6.2 Ball Milling

Ball milling is also one of the effective lignocellulosic size reduction machines. In ball mill the
reduction is done by the impact as the ball drop down from the shell walls near top.
Modifications are possible as per the requirement such as compartment ball mills where different
sizes of the balls work in different compartment.
Compressive forces and sheering reduce the crystallinity and degree of cellulose polymerization
as well. Milling at elevated temperatures is also possible in ball milling which increases the
hydrolysis effectivity considerably compared to that at normal temperatures.
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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

Silva et al. found that the milling process time is associated with the hydrolysis effectivity.
Increase in milling time resulted increase in hydrolysis effectivity. Koullas (1992) studied the
effect of process time for wheat straw size reduction. He reported that the conversion of
saccharide during hydrolysis without treatment was 17.7% and after the milling for 2 hours
process time it was increased to 61.6%.

Fig.6 Ball Mill

Hence we can conclude that the ball milling is a time consuming operation, longer the process
time, better the hydrolysis effectivity.

6.3 Vibration Mill

Sun and Cheng found vibratory ball milling to be more effective than the ordinary ball milling
process in breaking down the cellulose crystallinity. The effectiveness of the vibratory mill
depends on grinding elements, the lignin structure and the frequency of the vibration.
The working of vibratory mill is similar to that of the ball mill with an addition of the vibrating
shell instead of rotating shell.
The mill consists of a pot and a motor. The whole apparatus is supported by a spring which
allows the vibrations generated by the motor.
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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

Following image shows the schematic of the vibratory mill:

Fig. 7: Schematic of Vibratory Mill (Kobayashi et al., 2008)

The pot contains the grinding balls which are most of the times made up of steel and the feed
biomass. The final size is determined by the frequency of the shaker/ vibrating motor.

6.4 Knife Milling

According to Teherzadeh and Karimi, 2008, the knife milling operation is usually applied with
dry biomass, moisture content not exceeding 15%, wet basis. Knife milling is limited for
comminuting dry biomass such as straws, grasses, fodder crop wastes etc.
Mani et al. (2004) concluded that the energy requirement of knife mill is the least among
available options for disintegration of the dry biomass.
The knife mill consists of a blades or knives mounted on rotor shaft. A rotor rotates the rotor
shaft and the knife grid. The feedstock comes into the shell usually from the top portion of the
mill. The mill also consists of stationary bars known as cutting bars and due to which the feed
traps in between the knife and cutting bar and the size reduction takes place. Final particle size is
controlled by feed rate, rotor RPM and the type of the drum screen. Energy requirement depends
on all the above parameters along with mounting angle and bevel angle of the knife.

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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

Fig. 7: Knife Mill

Feed

Knife

Screen

Outlet

Fig. 8: Schematic of Knife Mill

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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

6.5 Hammer Milling
The main advantage of the hammer mills is their high size reduction ratio as well as simple
adjustment of particle sizes. Hammer mills are easy to operate, cheap and offer better particle
size control.

Fig. 9: Hammer Mill Schematic

As we can observe the figure above; the hammer mill consists of a rotor, hammers mounted on
rotor and a breaker plate. As the rotor rotates, the hammers attached to it impact the inlet feed
against a breaker plate and the reduction in size of the feedstock takes place. The product is then
taken out from the screens lying at the bottom of the mill.

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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

We can alter the screen size, feed rate and the hammer revolution in order to achieve desired size
reduction. But there is limitation to the rotation speed of the hammer tip. Lower hammer tip
speeds will allow the material to impinge on the screen at greater angle and cause coarser
material to pass through whereas higher speeds will make the material move parallel to the
screen surface resulting the partial opening. (Bitra et al. 2008)
Yu et al. reported the specific energy demand for wheat straw having moisture content of 8.3%,
wet basis, for grinding of 20-50mm long feed using multiple screen sizes as follows:

Table 3: Energy Required by Hammer Mill (Yu et al, 2003.)

Screen Size (mm)

Energy Required (kWht-1)

0.794

51.55

1.588

39.59

3.175

10.77

6.6 Disc Mill

In disc mills, the material is comminuted between the discs and flows to the radially outwards
direction due to the rotational motion. The material is fed through the center, coaxial to the
rotation axis and the due to acceleration it goes through multiple rotating blades.
Compression and sheer are the predominant mechanism of fragmentation of the feedstock.
Disc mills are built in single disc or double disc with profiled as well as straight blades
Millet et al. studied the energy requirements of the disc mill at room temperature and at 200 oC
and observed 100 kWht-1 which was 7.5 to 8.5 times lesser than that at room temperatures to
achieve 0.5mm final particle size for wood chips.

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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

Fig. 9: Schematic of Disc Mill

6.7 Colloid Mill

Colloid mills are mainly used for solid suspended in liquid havin more than 15% moisture
content on wet basis. (Taherzadeh and Karimi, 2008)
Colloid machines consist of two discs placed close to each other and revolving in opposite
direction. The feed is let in through the center and travels through the discs undergoing the shear.
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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

Fig. 10: Schematic of Disc Mill

Schell and Hardwood came up with the energy requirements of the wet disc mill and that are
comparable to the hammer mill. Hideno and Inoue (2009) compared the energy requirements of
wet disc mills with the ball mill for disintegration of the rice straw having final size of 2-3mm
and came to the conclusion that wet disc milling is applicable as continuous and massive
treatment process.
The energy requirements as well as process time are functions of biomass characteristics,
suspension viscosity, rotational speed, gap size and the design of disc.

6.8 Two Roll Mill

The two roll mill is very basic machine for the reduction in crystallinity, degree of
polymerization of celluloses. It consists of two surface rolls of cast iron placed horizontally with

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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

an adjustable clearance between them. The feedstock is fed between them and pressed. This
results in reduction in crystallinity and increase in bulk density.
But it may happen that reduction in surface area might take place due to the agglomeration of the
particles. Size determining parameters are roll clearance, roller temperature, process time and
roller speed.

6.9 Extrusion
The typical extruder comprises of three compartments, namely Feed, Transition and compression
and metering. Extruders have the capability to provide high shear, rapid mixing and rapid heat
transfer.
Extrusion is a continuous treatment hence extruders can be used easily in large scale operations.
Extruder parameters such as screw speed, barrel temperature, compression ratio are important
factors that influence sugar recovery from biomass. (Karuranithy and Muthukumarappan, 2009)

Fig. 11 Twin Extruder patented by Berger and Gelus, 2005

Key: (1): Input, (2) extruder I, (3) acid solution, (4) tempered barrel, (5)
extruder II, (6) pressure-reducing valve, (7) expansion chamber
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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

6.10 High Shear Effective Machines
These are the alternative equipments for the disintegration of the biomass feed having high
moisture contents, usually greater than 15-20%, wet basis. This process can be used for
suspended solids in various liquids such as liquid ammonia, water, aqueous solutions of acid or
alkali reagents, enzyme solutions containing cellulose etc. (Kratky and Jirout, 2011)
The design of these machines is very similar to that of disc mills or pumps with differences in
process parameters. These machines consist of a stationary and multiple rotating discs. Rotating
discs are usually perforated. This design leads to generation of local cavitation and pressure
fluctuation.

Fig. 12: Machines using developed cavitation

6.11 Freeze Pretreatment

Chang et al (2011) studied the effect of freeze pretreatment on the biomass. They mixed rice
straw with the buffer solution, a solution selected on the basis of its ability of expansion on
cooling. When the solution is cooled, due to the expansion in the volume of buffer solution,
breakage in structures of cellulose takes place. The process has no adverse effects to the
environment.

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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

7. Conclusion
Biomass size reduction techniques and size reduction machines for the pretreatment of biomass
were studied thoroughly.
In order to improve the biogas production, pretreatment is of immense importance. To select the
most suitable pretreatment it is necessary to consider the structure of biomass, moisture content
of feedstock and initial and final sizes of the biomass.
It is observed that the Ball milling and vibratory milling are the universal size reduction
equipments since they can handle dry as well as wet biomass for various temperature ranges. But
there are limitations because the processes are time consuming.
Biomass having more than 15-20% moisture content is pretreated using extrusion, wet disc mills
and high shear effective machines. The extrusion process is of great benefit since it offers high
shear rate, faster heat transfer and is a continuous process whereas disc milling is a batch
process, disintegration of biomass in large quantity is difficult in case of disc or colloid milling.
Typically Dry Biomass, moisture content not exceeding 15%, are disintegrated commonly by the
Hammer milling, knife milling, two roll milling. In the case of hammer mills and knife mills
small sizes of output biomasses can be achieved at the lower energy inputs and hence these
machines are widely used in size reduction techniques.

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Size reduction machines for enhanced biogas production

8. References
Chang, K. L., Thitikorn-amorn, J., Hsieh, J. F., Ou, B. M., Chen, S. H.,
Ratanakhanokchai, K., Chen, S. T. (2011). Enhanced enzymatic conversion
with freeze pretreatment of rice straw. Biomass and Bioenergy, 35(1), 9095.
doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2010.08.027
Igathinathane, C., & Ph, D. (2008). Linear Knife Grid Application for Biomass
Size Reduction, 0300(06).
Kobayashi, N., Guilin, P., Kobayashi, J., Hatano, S., Itaya, Y., & Mori, S. (2008).
A new pulverized biomass utilization technology. Powder Technology, 180(3),
272283. doi:10.1016/j.powtec.2007.02.041
Mani, S., Tabil, L. G., & Sokhansanj, S. (2006). Effects of compressive force,
particle size and moisture content on mechanical properties of biomass pellets
from grasses. Biomass and Bioenergy, 30(7), 648654.
doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2005.01.004
Schell, D. J., & Harwood, C. (1994). Milling of lignocellulosic biomass - Results
of pilot-scale testing. Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology, 45-46(1), 159
168.
Sun, Y., & Cheng, J. (2002). Hydrolysis of lignocellulosic materials for ethanol
production: a review q, 83, 111.
Taherzadeh, M. J., & Karimi, K. (2008). Pretreatment of lignocellulosic wastes to
improve ethanol and biogas production: A review. International Journal of
Molecular Sciences (Vol. 9, pp. 16211651). doi:10.3390/ijms9091621
Womac, A., Igathinathane, C., & Bitra, P. (2007). Biomass pre-processing size
reduction with instrumented mills. , 0300(07). Retrieved from
http://biomassprocessing.org/Publications/2-Papers_presented/ASAE Paper
No 056047 biomass_instrumentedmills_Womac et al.pdf

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