Quintana-Najera, J, Blacker, AJ, Fletcher, LA et al. (2 more authors) (2022) The Influence of Biochar Augmentation and Digestion Conditions on the Anaerobic Digestion of Water Hyacinth. Energies, 15 (7). 2524. ISSN 1996-1073
Abstract
The augmentation of biochar (BC) during anaerobic digestion (AD) has been identified as a potential strategy for improving the AD of complex feedstocks. This study evaluates the influence of oak wood biochar 450 °C and fermentation conditions during the AD of the invasive aquatic plant, water hyacinth (WH). Factorial 22 design of experiments (DOE) allowed the evaluation of the effect of the crucial processing conditions, inoculum-to-substrate ratio (ISR) and biochar load. Further optimisation was performed to identify the best processing conditions for the AD of WH, at an ideal ISR of 1. The contour plots suggested that methane yield is favoured at biochar loads of ≤0.5%, whereas the production rate is favoured by increasing biochar loads. However, biochar addition offered no further improvement or significant effect on the digestion of WH. The subsequent AD of WH samples collected from different locations in India and Uganda exhibited variable biochemical methane potential (BMP) yields. BC addition had little effect on BMP performance, and in some cases, it even reduced the BMP. This study concludes that the amendment potential of biochar is influenced by digestion conditions and the substrate, particularly when working with complex substrates.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
Keywords: | anaerobic digestion; water hyacinth; biochar; design of experiments (DOE); inoculum-to-substrate ratio (ISR) |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Civil Engineering (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number BBSRC (Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council) BB/S011439/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 05 May 2022 11:06 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:58 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/en15072524 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:186463 |