AbStRaCt

ABSTRACT

Water Hyacinth - a native of South America is abundantly found in India, Bangladesh, South East Asia and in the Philippines Islands. Under favorable conditions a growth rate as high as 17.5 metric tons of wet Water hyacinth per hectare per day has been reported. Due to vegetative reproduction it spreads rapidly clogging drainage, ditches, shedding out other vegetations and interfering with shipping and recreation.
The concept of using aquatic plants for conversion to energy (methane) is gaining attention in tropical and sub tropical regions of the world where warm climate is conductive to the plant growth through out the year. Anaerobic digestion of organic matter is the oldest method for disposing the waste. The anaerobic digestion of animal, agricultural and industrial wastes has been widely studied. However, very little work has been done using aquatic plants particularly Water Hyacinth.
The present paper deals with the kinetics of gas produced from Water Hyacinth. The study was done in a batch fed digester. Attempts have been made to reach at an optimum condition for the production of maximum amount of gas by the addition of lower volatile fatty acids, Cow dung and inoculums etc. The important and useful results that was drawn from the study is that we can run the biogas plants even in the cold winter nights by using certain additives. After digestion of Water Hyacinth inoculums can be used as good manure for soil fertility, which is free from harmful chemicals, which is a boon for sustainable agriculture practices.