{"title":"High-rate anaerobic digestion of water hyacinth juice in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor with observations on granule formation","authors":"Pranshu Bhatia , Masaaki Fujiwara , Shin-ichi Akizuki , Daiki Maruyama , Nigus Gabbiye Habtu , Shinjiro Sato , Tatsuki Toda","doi":"10.1016/j.jwpe.2025.107339","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Water hyacinth, due to its rapid growth rate and widespread, presents an opportunity for sustainable utilization, necessitating further research. Recent attention toward high-rate anaerobic digestion, especially of green or organic juices, suggests that juice from the water hyacinth plant could serve as an appropriate substrate. This study aims to assess the long-term performance, maximize treatment capacity limits across different phases, microbial community dynamics, and granule characteristics of an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor in response to increasing loadings of water hyacinth juice (WHJ). The findings demonstrated that the reactor maintains stable effluent pH levels (7.2–8.9) and supports high biogas production rates throughout the process. At an optimal hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1.2 day, the process remained stable, achieving a biogas production rate of 2.2 L L-reactor<sup>−1</sup> day<sup>−1</sup> and organic carbon removal of around 90 %. For the first time, this study revealed that the use of water hyacinth, despite being an aquatic weed, effectively facilitated granule formation during anaerobic digestion process. Scanning electron microscopy revealed, robust, and stable granule textures. Microbial analyses indicated a diverse bacterial and archaeal community, with a Shannon index of 5.0 for bacteria and 2.3 for archaea, confirming the efficient degradation of water hyacinth juice. Overall, the results indicate that high-rate anaerobic digestion of water hyacinth juice is feasible, enabling the sustainable utilization and removal of excess water hyacinth. The high biogas production rate and granule formation observed in this study highlights the potential for large-scale bioenergy production and effective waste management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":17528,"journal":{"name":"Journal of water process engineering","volume":"72 ","pages":"Article 107339"},"PeriodicalIF":6.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of water process engineering","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214714425004118","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Water hyacinth, due to its rapid growth rate and widespread, presents an opportunity for sustainable utilization, necessitating further research. Recent attention toward high-rate anaerobic digestion, especially of green or organic juices, suggests that juice from the water hyacinth plant could serve as an appropriate substrate. This study aims to assess the long-term performance, maximize treatment capacity limits across different phases, microbial community dynamics, and granule characteristics of an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor in response to increasing loadings of water hyacinth juice (WHJ). The findings demonstrated that the reactor maintains stable effluent pH levels (7.2–8.9) and supports high biogas production rates throughout the process. At an optimal hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1.2 day, the process remained stable, achieving a biogas production rate of 2.2 L L-reactor−1 day−1 and organic carbon removal of around 90 %. For the first time, this study revealed that the use of water hyacinth, despite being an aquatic weed, effectively facilitated granule formation during anaerobic digestion process. Scanning electron microscopy revealed, robust, and stable granule textures. Microbial analyses indicated a diverse bacterial and archaeal community, with a Shannon index of 5.0 for bacteria and 2.3 for archaea, confirming the efficient degradation of water hyacinth juice. Overall, the results indicate that high-rate anaerobic digestion of water hyacinth juice is feasible, enabling the sustainable utilization and removal of excess water hyacinth. The high biogas production rate and granule formation observed in this study highlights the potential for large-scale bioenergy production and effective waste management.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Water Process Engineering aims to publish refereed, high-quality research papers with significant novelty and impact in all areas of the engineering of water and wastewater processing . Papers on advanced and novel treatment processes and technologies are particularly welcome. The Journal considers papers in areas such as nanotechnology and biotechnology applications in water, novel oxidation and separation processes, membrane processes (except those for desalination) , catalytic processes for the removal of water contaminants, sustainable processes, water reuse and recycling, water use and wastewater minimization, integrated/hybrid technology, process modeling of water treatment and novel treatment processes. Submissions on the subject of adsorbents, including standard measurements of adsorption kinetics and equilibrium will only be considered if there is a genuine case for novelty and contribution, for example highly novel, sustainable adsorbents and their use: papers on activated carbon-type materials derived from natural matter, or surfactant-modified clays and related minerals, would not fulfil this criterion. The Journal particularly welcomes contributions involving environmentally, economically and socially sustainable technology for water treatment, including those which are energy-efficient, with minimal or no chemical consumption, and capable of water recycling and reuse that minimizes the direct disposal of wastewater to the aquatic environment. Papers that describe novel ideas for solving issues related to water quality and availability are also welcome, as are those that show the transfer of techniques from other disciplines. The Journal will consider papers dealing with processes for various water matrices including drinking water (except desalination), domestic, urban and industrial wastewaters, in addition to their residues. It is expected that the journal will be of particular relevance to chemical and process engineers working in the field. The Journal welcomes Full Text papers, Short Communications, State-of-the-Art Reviews and Letters to Editors and Case Studies