Microbiological Changes Accompanying Degradation of Water Hyacinth in an Anaerobic Digester

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Abstract
It is well known that certain aquatic plants like Eichhornia crassipes (Water hyacinth), Ipomoea repens. Salvinia bilobe and S. auriculata (the floating ferns) and cer tain other grasses that grow in waste water have not only the ability to proliferate pro- fusely in a short period but also the capacity to absorb considerable amounts of nutrients. The chopped materials, if properly blended with cow-dung and allowed to ferment anaerobically, could generate methane rich biogas for cooking, lighting and other purposes (Singh, 1978). Since water hyacinth is very rich in protein and nutrients, it has consider- able promise in the area of biogas production. It is of interest to study the distribution of various microbial populations in an anaerobic digester incorporated with this weed along with cowdung and old slurry in relation to biogas generation. Hence this experiment was carried out to study the role played by microorganisms in the bioconversion of digestive waste materials.

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