Deployment of biogas production technologies in emerging countries

Ever-growing demands for energy supplies in emerging countries has motivated the scientists of the world to search for renewable energy sources that could replace fossil fuels. Bioenergy technologies that use renewable sources for simultaneous biomass refinery and methane-rich biogas production will play a role in energy security. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the one of the most commonly used biogas production technologies, which can utilize a wide range of biomass as the substrate for biogas recovery. This chapter deals with AD technologies for biogas production. Detailed information about the basics and working principles of AD processes, the types and characteristics of various organic wastes used as feedstocks (i.e. waste activated sludge, lignocellulosic biomass, algae, food waste, leafy vegetables, and livestock manure), and the commonly adopted pretreatment methods (i.e. acidic pretreatment, alkali pretreatment, ultrasonication, microwave irradiation, ozonation, thermal pretreatment, enzymatic pretreatment and high-pressure homogenization) are summarized. Meanwhile, the status of the implementations of AD technologies for biogas production in several emerging countries (i.e. China, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand) is also included, providing valuable information and guidance for pushing forward the real applications of biogas production technologies.