Sustainable utilization of some noxious aquatic weeds by energy recovery using high solid anaerobic digesters

Abstract

One of the options on which we zeroed in was utilization of weeds for generating energy as biogas via anaerobic digestion. This study makes an attempt to utilize some noxious aquatic weeds as a feedstock in High Solid Anaerobic Digesters (HSADs) for the recovery of energy. The specific objectives of the study were to fabricate lab scale HSADs for the digestion of organic fraction of some common noxious aquatic weeds and to evaluate the suitability of it as a feed stock in Anaerobic Digesters and the recovery of energy in terms of biogas. The findings indicate 4.873% of dry solids loss and 96.32% degradation of volatile solids at the end of the experiment for Typha latifolia with a total biogas yield of 14,175 ml and resulted into a total of 83,609 m3/m3 digester volume and 4.168% of dry solids loss and 92.46% degradation of volatile solids at the end of the experiment for Pistia stratiotes with a cumulative biogas yield of 17,570 ml and resulted into a total of 83,609 m3/m3 in 30 days. The performance of the reactors is similar with the values reported in earlier works. This waste utilization forms a sustainable solution for the management of organic fraction of municipal solid waste. Also the slurry from the bioreactor can be utilized as a bio fertilizer.