LAUSR

Abstract The present study is a comparative evaluation of anaerobic co-digestion of water hyacinth and food waste with and without pretreatment. The novelty of this anaerobic co-digestion study is that it highlights the effect of pretreatment and mixing ratio. Two set up of bio-chemical methane potential (BMP) experiments for the same mixing ratios but with or without pretreatment were simultaneously conducted. In set I, untreated water hyacinth and food waste was co-digested whereas in set II, pretreated water hyacinth and food waste was co-digested. Higher biogas production in set I and II was witnessed by the mixing ratios 2 and 1.5 respectively indicating them to be the ideal mixing ratio. Considerably higher biogas production was observed for both the setup of anaerobic co-digestion than mono-digestion. Also, set II exhibited higher biogas production than set I. The results portrayed that pretreatment followed by co-digestion provided quicker and higher biogas production.