Biogas production from anaerobic co-digestion of Prosopis juliflora pods with water hyacinth, dry leaves, and cow manure

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the anaerobic co-digestion of different feed materials (FMs). The FMs of Prosopis juliflora pods (PJP), water hyacinth (WH), and dry leaves (DL) were anaerobically digested with cow manure (CM). Twenty different experiments (T1–T20) were conducted in a batch type digester under mesophilic condition (35 ± 2°C). These experiments were separated in five groups and each group differed by varying the CM/FM ratio. Each group contains four experiments (by varying the quantity of FM [DL and WH]) and each group maintains the similar quantity of FM variation. The biogas and methane yield were enhanced in group contain 0.75 CM/FM ratio compared to other ratio of CM/FM. In each group, higher biogas and methane yield were obtained for the mixture containing FM (DL:WH) ratio of 3:2. The highest biogas yield of 96.6 L/kg was obtained for the experiment T5 (mixture having 5 PJP + 3 DL +2 WH and 0.75 CM/FM). There was no significant gas production recorded in the digester that operated the FM alone and all four digesters were inhibited. The total solids value of influent and effluent represents the degradability of the mixture. The obtained results were compared with the previous work done by the researchers.