Abstract
In order to clear characteristics of wheat bran as a typical fibrous biomass for a substrate of methane fermentation, some laboratory scale experiments were conducted under a continuous fermentation in mesophilic range. The experiments made progress in a steady fermentation under almost conditions of variations of total solids (TS) concentration and hydraulic retention time (HRT) . The volumetric ratio of methane and carbon dioxide in the generated biogas was nearly one to one under all the conditions. The content of methane in the biogas was less than that from other organic wastes. The state of the fermentation became worse and the volume of methane became less, as the TS concentration became higher and HRT became shorter. Application of Chen-Hashimoto model for analysis of the fermentation almost cleared the optimum TS concentration and HRT.HomePageKeywords: methane fermentation, fibrous biomass, wheat bran, alternative energy, biogas, waste treatment, Chen-Hashimoto model