Evaluation of Ultrasound Pretreatment for Enhanced Anaerobic Digestion of Sida hermaphrodita

The influence of ultrasonic pretreatment with specific energy input ranging from 25 to 550 kJ/kg volatile solids on the mixture of Sida hermaphrodita (L.) Rusby mixed with cattle manure disintegration and subsequent anaerobic digestion was assessed. The pretreatment process led to significant increase in the biomass solubility by 21.9% as chemical oxygen demand and enhanced biogas yield by 157% (567.1 L biogas/kg volatile solids) when the specific energy input was from 200 to 550 kJ/kg. However, only pretreatments where ultrasound was applied at 25–50 kJ/kg led to positive net energy gain, indicating that the biomass processing with this method does not always compensate the energy consumption for irradiation.