Experimental Investigation of Biogas Production from Water Lettuce, Pistia stratiotes L

Biogas production through anaerobic digestion (AD) has emerged as one of the renewable energy production technology of choice because through AD biogas as a renewable fuel. The current study focused on the feasibility of biogas production from water lettuce, Pistia stratiotes L. water lettuce contains 49.4% carbohydrates, 16.5% protein, lipid 3.6%, fiber 17.8% and ash 23.8%, and furthermore these compositions are an ideal feedstock for biogas production. The fresh water lettuce was harvested after that dried then powdered before fermentation in mesophilic batch reactors. Experiments were carried out as batch runs in laboratory-scale digesters with the addition of inoculums. Total gas yield was 9667.33 mL, during 45 days digestion time. The maximum methane content was reached 66.35%. Based on these results, water lettuce is very suitable as a substrate for biogas production.