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The public defense of the EMU Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences doctoral student Mario Alberto Luna del Risco's PhD thesis «Biochemical Methane Potential of Estonian Substrates and Evaluation of Some Inhibitors of Anaerobic Digestion» takes place on December 16.

"The importance of this work is connected to our energy needs - biogas is a potential alternative for the production of energy while simultaneously resolving ecological issues," del Risco commented.

In the thesis, del Risco created a database with data from the literature on the chemical composition and methane potential of 226 substrates, i.e materials from which gas may potentially be produced. He also added data about 61 Estonian substrates in the database, for which he evaluated the biochemical methane potential of typical Estonian agricultural biomass and agro-industrial residues. 

Results from herbal biomass, animal slurries and agro-industrial residues from Estonia showed great methane potential. The most productive material turned out to be unconsumed cheese products, showing numbers almost two times as high as animal slurry. Methane yields from herbal biomass, i.e.  energy crops, silages, and hay showed a bit higher results than slurry as well. Using herbal biomass for biogas production in Estonia offers a solution to fulfill the energy demand, the author concluded.

The supervisors of the thesis are Dr. Kaja Orupõld, Prof. Henri-Charles Dubouguier and Dr. Marta Carballa Arcos. The opponent of the thesis is Prof. Jukka Rintala (Tampere University of Technology, Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Finnland).

The thesis is available here: 

http://dspace.emu.ee/xmlui/handle/10492/150