Abstract:
Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant renewable resource in the world and has
a potential use as an alternative to fossil resource for production of chemicals and fuels. To
improve the conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to fermentable sugars, pretreatment
processes have been developed to increase the yield of saccharification, and decrease the
contents of inhibitors such as lignin. The aim of this study was to explore the potential of
aquatic weeds, water hyacinth, as substrates for anaerobic digestion. To improve the rate of
hydrolysis of biomass by commercial cellulase enzyme, microwave pretreatment methods was
performed and its efficiency was monitored and evaluated by measurement of reducing sugars.
A batch digestion was set up to assess the yield and quality of biogas from pretreated water
hyacinth. The results of the batch digestors showed that pretreated water hyacinth was readily
degradable, yielding 290 L biogas kg-1, with methane content of approxinately 55%. Based on
these results, pretreatment of water hyacinth biomass before anaerobic digestion is
recommended as it has the higher biogas yield up to 36.15% compared to unpretreated
biomass.