초록
<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>The aim of this research is oriented towards the evaluation of the improvements of a combined CO<SUB>2</SUB> and thermal pre-treatment on the biochemical methane potential (BMP) of Baltic Sea seaweed biomass. Four locally available algae of the Baltic Sea were tested. The values of BMP for untreated biomass were assessed with the following outputs: Fucus vesiculosus 97.9 mL CH<SUB>4</SUB>/gVS, Furcellaria lumbricalis 173.5 mL CH<SUB>4</SUB>/gVS, Cladophora sp. 377.1 mL CH<SUB>4</SUB>/gVS, and 364.8 mL CH<SUB>4</SUB>/gVS for Ulva intestinalis. The effects of the following selected thermal pre-treatments were investigated: boiling, microwaving and autoclaving, combined with the effects of an initial CO<SUB>2</SUB> pre-treatment. The results show that biomass pre-treatment with CO<SUB>2</SUB> at atmospheric pressure increased BMP by 1–13 %. The best results were obtained by combining CO<SUB>2</SUB> treatment with subsequent autoclaving with an increase of the BMP for F. vesiculosus of 132.5 % (i.e. 227.6 mL CH<SUB>4</SUB>/gVS) and for F. lumbricalis of 116.4 % (i.e. 375.5 mL CH<SUB>4</SUB>/gVS). An increase of the BMP around 12–14 % was also observed for other two algae species that already had a high biomethane potential also in untreated conditions. Results show that algae biomass pre-treatment with CO<SUB>2</SUB> at atmospheric pressure (low pressure, in respect to conventional 30–100 bar methods) combined with autoclaving could be effective method for BMP improvement. The results show that the efficiency of the pre-treatment is species-specific, nevertheless an overall energy balance taking into account the energy spent within the adopted pre-treatment is not explored at this stage of the study.</P>