Evaluation of biogas yield from water leaf plant (Talinum triangulare)

Abstract

The exploitation of plant materials for renewable source of energy in form of biogas is of growing interest. Water leaf (Talinum triangulare), an abundantly available underutilized herbaceous perennial plant in South-Western Nigeria was digested to assess its biogas yield. Water leaf (WL) and Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) alone, and mixtures of water hyacinth (WH) and WL at ratios 70:30, 50:50 and 30:70 (w:w dry basis) were digested to compare biogas yields. Fixed amount of cow dung was added to each treatment before digestion in batch-type anaerobic digesters for 70 days. The results of the study showed that feedstock mixture affected (p ≤ 0.05) pH and biogas yield. WL proved to be prolific in biogas as it yielded approximately six times greater than WH. The mixture of WH and WL improved biogas yield than WH alone. The mixture WH:WL at ratio 30:70 produced the highest average yield of 363.7 cm³ kg^-1 VS fed day^-1 which was approximately 7.8 and 1.2 times greater than the yields obtained from WH and WL alone, respectively.