Biogas production from water Hyacinth blends

Abstract

Paper presented to the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Florida, 14-16 July 2014.This work studied the biogas generation potential of water hyacinth. This was with a view to determining the effects of blending cow dung and poultry droppings with water hyacinth on the yield of biogas. Samples of water hyacinth, cow-dung and poultry droppings were obtained from the Lagoon front of the University of Lagos Nigeria, an abattoir in Ile Ife Nigeria and the Teaching and Research Farm of the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile Ife Nigeria respectively. The sample of water hyacinth was subjected to some pretreatments before it was blended with cow-dung and poultry droppings in varying proportions and then digested in anaerobic digesters for a retention time of thirty days. The results showed that the water hyacinth blend with proportions of water hyacinth, cow dung and poultry droppings in the ratio of 2 : 2 : 1 respectively, produced the largest volume of biogas of 3.073 Litres per 2.5kg of the feedstock while water hyacinth alone which served as the control for the experiment produced the smallest volume of biogas of 0.931 Litres per kg of the feedstock. The result of the Gas Chromatography analysis revealed that the biogas had Methane (62.14%), Ammonia (0.44%), Carbon (IV) oxide (34.44%), Hydrogen sulphide (1.38%) and Carbon monoxide (0.44%). The study concluded that the biogas production from water hyacinth could be optimized by subjecting it to some pretreatments like blending with animal wastes.