Abstract:
This research aimed at the investigation of the energy production and nutrient recovery from water hyacinth juice using an anaerobic digestion process in an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor. The study was conducted at the Bahir Dare Institute of Technology Energy and Nutrient Recovery Research Laboratory, from April (2022) to March (2023) G.C. The experiments were performed by crushing raw water hyacinth biomass using a Jeffco machine and compressing the juice manually. The compressed juice was then filtered using a cloth and sieve to remove soil and other non-degradable suspended material. The anaerobic digestion experiments were studied over a wide range of hydraulic retention times (HRT) of 6, 4, and 2 days in the neutral pH range of 6.9 - 7.9 and a mesophilic, temperature of 37°C. The progress of the anaerobic digestion process was monitored by recording the pH and characterizatied the nutrients, total suspended solids, total solids, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total volatile solids (TVS) of substrate and effluent. The biogas produced was collected in gas collector bags, and its volume was measured by a wet-type gas flow meter. The result showed that the total production of biogas from compressed water hyacinth juice with cow dung and activated sludge inoculum was 47.24L with the COD reduction from (3377.85±45.32 to 1369.23±78.45) gm/L and 80.657L for a period of 73 days with the COD reduction from (3377.85±45.32 to 1195.43±34.25) gm/L respectively. Regarding to the composition of biogas, methane was found to be 72% and 73.4 % using (cow dung and activated sludge) inoculum, respectively. The concentration of nitrate in substrate and effluent was reduced from 61.36±0.25 mg/L to 52.34±35.10 mg/L for cow dung and 61.36±0.25 mg/L to 51.97±1.96 mg/L for activated sludge inoculum. whereas the concentration of phosphate increased from 2.49±0.26 mg/L to 5.49±0.94 mg/L and 2.49±0.26 mg/L to 7.46±0.439 mg/L respectively. The findings demonstrated that a high yield of biogas with good quality of methane gas was obtained with the application of high-rate treatment of water hyacinth juice in the up-flow anaerobic blanket reactor in a short hydraulic retention time. It was also observed that a substantial amount of phosphate could be recovered through such an anaerobic digestion process.
Keywords: - Anaerobic digestion, UASB, Inoculum, Biogas, Nutrient recover