The Cultivation of Water Hyacinth in India as a Feedstock for Anaerobic Digestion: Development of a Predictive Model for Scaling Integrated Systems

Douglas G. Bray, Gaurav Nahar, Oliver Grasham, Vishwanath Dalvi, Shailendrasingh Rajput, Valerie Dupont, Miller Alonso Camargo-Valero and Andrew B. Ross ()
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Douglas G. Bray: School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Gaurav Nahar: Defiant Renewables Pvt Ltd., Chinchwad, Pune 411033, Maharashtra, India
Oliver Grasham: School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Vishwanath Dalvi: Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai 400019, Maharashtra, India
Shailendrasingh Rajput: Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai 400019, Maharashtra, India
Valerie Dupont: School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Miller Alonso Camargo-Valero: BioResource Systems Research Group, School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
Andrew B. Ross: School of Chemical and Process Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 24, 1-16

Abstract: A novel, integrated system is proposed for the cultivation and co-digestion of the invasive macrophyte water hyacinth (WH) with cow manure (CM) for the production of biogas for cooking in rural India. This study investigates the pre-treatment approaches and performs a techno-economic analysis of producing biogas in fixeddome digesters as a replacement for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Methodologies have been developed for the cultivation of WH collected from wild plants in the Indrayani River, Pune, India. Cultivation trials were performed in 350 litre tanks using water, which was nutrient fed with CM. Cultivation trials were performed over a 3 week period, and growth rates were determined by removing and weighing the biomass at regular time intervals. Cultivation results provided typical yields and growth rates of biomass, allowing predictions to be made for cultivation scaling. Samples of cultivated WH have been co-digested with CM at a 20:80 ratio in 200 L anaerobic digesters, allowing for the prediction of bio-methane yields from fixed-dome anaerobic digesters in real world conditions, which are commonly used in the rural locations of India. A calculator has been developed, allowing us to estimate the scaling requirements for the operation of an integrated biomass cultivation and anaerobic co-digestion unit to produce an equivalent amount of biogas to replace between one and three LPG cylinders per month. A techno-economic analysis of introducing WH into fixed-dome digesters in India demonstrated that the payback periods range from 9 years to under 1 year depending on the economic strategies. To replace between one and three LPG cylinders per month using the discussed feedstock ratio, the cultivation area of WH required to produce sufficient co-feedstock ranges within 10–55 m 2 .

Keywords: water hyacinth; cultivation; nutrients; manure; anaerobic digestion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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