OptiBurst
GPSR’s Advanced System to Break Down “toughies”
Rajesh Ayyappasur & Manoj M
Paddy straw is full of biomethanation promise, but it is also stubborn and extremely hard to break down.
Its tightly bound lignocellulosic structure keeps valuable carbon locked away from methanogens – or anaerobic microorganisms – reducing biogas yield and limiting the performance of anaerobic digesters processing agro-residues.
To tackle this challenge, GPS Renewables has developed OptiBurst, an innovative cavitation-based pre-treatment solution designed to crack open tough agro-waste like paddy straw.
Cavitation in biogas operations helps disintegrate biomass feedstock. This physical process breaks down cell walls and reduces viscosity, making stubborn lignin-rich materials more digestible to microbes.
By integrating OptiBurst into a side-stream loop of the digester slurry, the system continuously subjects biomass to controlled cavitation forces. These forces disrupt lignin–cellulose complexes, increase surface area, and make previously inaccessible carbon fractions available for microbial conversion. All this without chemical additives or high-temperature processes.
We’ve seen promising results in our initial pilot-scale trials of OptiBurst, which has succeeded in turning “hard-to-digest” substrates into a more microbe-friendly feast. Encouraged by these results, GPS Renewables is now conducting rigorous plant-scale studies to validate performance, durability, energy efficiency, and integration ease under real operating conditions.
Once these evaluations are complete, OptiBurst will be released for commercial deployment, a development that could significantly shift the landscape of India’s large-scale BioCNG industry.
With crop residues like paddy straw being abundant yet notoriously resistant to digestion, OptiBurst stands to unlock a new level of feedstock flexibility. This aligns with India’s push toward scalable BioCNG production, enabling plants to achieve higher yields as an alternative to – and in a few cases – complement expensive chemical pre-treatments or cumbersome mechanical processing.
OptiBurst marks a promising advancement in homegrown biogas technology — one more powerful solution under GPS Renewables’ OptiMAXX YES – Yield Enhancement System category.
If early results are any indication, the future of high-yield, agro-waste–driven BioCNG is about to get a whole lot brighter.
