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Hydrogen and Fatty Acid Production by Dark Fermentation of Sweet Sorghum Stalks as an Efficient Pre-treatment for Energy Recovery Before Their Bioconversion into Methane

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Abstract

Hydrogen, volatile fatty acids (VFAs), and methane coproduction from sweet sorghum stems using bacterial consortium was investigated as an efficient and sustainable pre-treatment strategy to improve energy recovery. Integrated two-stage dark fermentation and methanization approach aimed to reduce fractionation, juice extraction, and pre-treatment steps to improve the efficiency and sustainability of stalks energy bioconversion. Stems biomass loading did not significantly influence hydrogen and VFAs productivities. Energy recovery yields were (7.07) and (10.01) MJ/kg dry matter (DM), respectively, for raw stem single dark fermentation (DF) and methanization processes, corresponding to 41.22% and 58.37% of raw stalk energy potential. Methanogenic potential increase of 31.9% and energy bioconversion yield of 13.21 MJ/kg DM were reached for solid residues from DF (80.75% of their energy content), suggesting that bacterial consortium efficiently pre-treated sorghum stalk fibers. Coupling process led to 88.74% net biomass energy recovery yield, corresponding respectively to 57.38% and 40.23% more than single DF and methanization. Fiber degradation ability of DF bacterial consortium significantly contributed to improve sorghum stalk energy recovery efficiency and cost-competitiveness.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank the “Centre Imagerie Cellulaire Santé (CICS), UCA PARTNER, 63000 Clermont-Ferrand” and “Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand (ICCF)—UMR 6296” for their collaboration on biomass FESEM scanning and X-ray diffraction analyses.

Funding

Hamadou Bakari’s research mobility was financially supported by the French government through its Eiffel excellence scholarship program (Campus France (D21–0000000051)).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Energy Research Laboratory, Institute for Geological and Mining Research (IRGM), Renewable Energy Section (LRE/SENC), P.O. Box 4110, Nlongkak, Yaounde, Cameroon

    Bakari Hamadou & Ruben Zieba Falama

  2. Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, Clermont Auvergne INP, Institut Pascal, F-63000, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Bakari Hamadou, Christine Gardarin, Fabrice Audonnet, Cedric Delattre, Guillaume Pierre, Pascal Dubessay, Philippe Michaud & Gwendoline Christophe

  3. Department of the Renewable Energies, School of Engineering of Maroua, The National Advanced, University of Maroua, P.O. Box 46, Maroua, Cameroon

    Bakari Hamadou, Djomdi Djomdi & Roger Djouldé Darnan

  4. National Advanced School of Mines and Petroleum Industries, University of Maroua, P.O Box 46, Maroua, Cameroon

    Ruben Zieba Falama

  5. Centre Imagerie Cellulaire Santé, Université Clermont Auvergne, UFR de Médecine Et Des Professions Paramédicales, 28 Place Henri Dunant, 63000, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Christelle Blavignac

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  1. Bakari Hamadou
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Bakari Hamadou, Christine Gardarin, Christelle Blavignac, Djomdi Djomdi, and Ruben Zieba Falama. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Bakari Hamadou, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Philippe Michaud.

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Highlights

Biomass loading did not significantly influence H2 and VFAs productivities.

DF bacterial consortium effectively pre-treated sorghum stem fibrous fractions.

DF solid residues had 31.9% higher methanogenic potential than raw stems.

DF and AD coupling process led to 88.74% of net energy production yield.

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Hamadou, B., Djomdi, D., Falama, R.Z. et al. Hydrogen and Fatty Acid Production by Dark Fermentation of Sweet Sorghum Stalks as an Efficient Pre-treatment for Energy Recovery Before Their Bioconversion into Methane. Bioenerg. Res. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-024-10724-9

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