Abstract
The suitability of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) for biogas production has been tested under mesophilic conditions, in 90-day laboratory-scale experiments. In almost all trials, anaerobic digestion of water hyacinth followed a balanced course producing good quality gas. Among three start-up inoculum sources,viz., rumen liquor, digested sewage sludge, and digested water hyacinth sludge from an old biogas digester, the latter has been found to be the best. Total solids concentrations of 20 to 50 g/1 were successfully applied. Increasing the loading rate within the range from 0.597 to 4.0 kg VS/M3/day resulted in a decrease in gas yields per unit weight of the feed. No harmful accumulation of volatile fatty acids occurred in any experiment. pH levels settled around 7.0 without the need for external adjustment. Digestion at the constant temperatures of 25, 37 and 45°C showed 37°C to be the best incubation temperature. Room temperature varying between 32 and 42°C gave higher yields than 25 and 45°C. Gas production at 45°C was very sensitive to any environmental changes. An average of 630 1 of biogas was obtained per kg of total solids of water hyacinth. Methane percentages in the gas produced ranged from 54 to 63% in the steady state of batch and semi-continuous fermentations. In some cases methane percentage rose to above 70%.
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Dirar, H.A., El Amin, H.B. (1986). Biogas Production from Water Hyacinth Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms. In: Alani, D.I., Moo-Young, M. (eds) Perspectives in Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4321-6_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-4321-6_19
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