RT Journal Article
T1 Mesophilic Semi-Continuous Anaerobic Digestion of Strawberry Extrudate Pretreated with Steam Explosion
A1 Cubero Cardoso, Juan
A1 Muñoz Arjona, Andrés
A1 Trujillo Reyes, Ángeles
A1 Urbano Baena, Juan
AB The production of strawberry concentrate produces a side stream after extrusion that iscommonly landfilled. This strawberry extrudate (SE), of lignocellulosic character, contains valuablebioactive compounds such as sugars and phenols. Thermal treatments, such as steam explosion,are currently used for the valorisation of agricultural lignocellulosic wastes due to their ability to impactthe structure of the lignocellulose and hemicellulose present in these wastes, favouring the disruptionof fibrous material. Steam explosion has already been shown as a promising technology forphenol recovery from SE. Biogas is an additional valuable resource that might be produced fromthermally pretreated and de-phenolised SE. This study assessed the influence of a steam-explosionpretreatment and the subsequent recovery of phenolic compounds from the long-term operation of asemi-continuous anaerobic digester of pretreated SE. The anaerobic digestion of SE steam explodedat 220 ◦C for 5 min and de-phenolised was stable at an OLR of 0.5 g of volatile solids (VS)/(L·d),which permitted a specific production rate of 135 ± 11 mL of CH4/(g of VS d). The system wasnot able to operate at an OLR of 1 g of VS/(L·d), which resulted in a failure of the process. Despitethe inhibition threshold of phenolic compounds not being achieved, the inhibition of the anaerobicdigestion process at an OLR of 1 g of VS/(L·d) was most likely due to the overloading of the system.This was indicated by the accumulation of soluble organic matter and volatile fatty acids. The increasein the propionic acid concentration up to 1300 mg/L when operating at OLRs higher than 0.5 g ofVS/(L·d) could be the main factor responsible for the inhibition. An economic evaluation showedthat the proposed approach (steam explosion, phenol recovery, and anaerobic digestion) would offerpositive benefits, taking into account the high phenolic recovery (0.90 g of gallic acid equivalents/kgof extrudate) and the low sales price of the phenol extract, i.e., EUR 0.610/g of gallic acid equivalents,needed to reach zero net profit.
PB MDPI
SN 2304-8158
YR 2020
FD 2020-12
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10272/19590
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10272/19590
LA eng
NO Cubero Cardoso, J., Muñoz Arjona, A., Trujillo Reyes, Á. ...  Urbano Baena, J. (2020). Mesophilic Semi-Continuous Anaerobic Digestion of Strawberry Extrudate Pretreated with Steam Explosion. Foods, 9(12), 1887. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9121887
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 14 jul 2026