Anaerobic Digestion of Aquatic Plants for Biogas Production

Limited reserves of fossil fuel resources and negative environmental impacts increased energy demands toward renewable energy technologies. Bioenergy is one of the solutions, and biogas production from wastes and residues by anaerobic digestion (AD) is a promising technology. Municipal solid wastes, sludge from wastewater treatment plants, agricultural plant wastes, forestry residues and manure are the widely used sources in AD for biogas production. Aquatic plants can be evaluated as a renewable energy source. If waste and residues of these plants are not utilized in beneficial use, greenhouse gases (GHG) will be emitted through land-filling or direct combustion. Wastes should be converted to biogas with a high yield to decrease the quantity of wastes and biogas with a high-energy content. Substrate to inoculum ratio, temperature regime, C/N ratio, pH, volatile fatty acid and ammonia content are important process parameters for AD. Modified Gompertz, Cone and first-order equations are widely used model equations for kinetic parameters that are used in kinetic models (Monod, modified Andrew, Ratkowsky) for identification of optimum substrate concentration and temperature for each specific feed. This chapter evaluates effective process parameters on AD of aquatic plants for biogas production and application of kinetic analysis for assignment of optimum conditions.