Comparison of long-term energy efficiency and microbial community dynamics of different reactors in response to increased loadings of water hyacinth juice.

Water hyacinth is considered to be among the worst invasive weed species globally, causing detrimental environmental and social problems worldwide. It rapidly grows, and therefore has significant potential as a resource. Due to its high moisture content (approximately 95%), the by-product obtained by dehydrating water hyacinth yields a considerable amount of water hyacinth juice (WHJ). In this study, we performed a comparative assessment of long-term energy efficiency, maximum treatment capacity limits, and microbial community dynamics of modified internal circulation (MIC) and up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors in response to increasing loadings of WHJ. The MIC reactor exhibited a higher energy recovery rate and stronger performance compared with the UASB reactor. The optimal organic loading rates of the MIC and UASB reactors were 17.93 and 8.85 kg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/m3/d, with methane conversion rates of 0.21 and 0.15 m3 CH4/kg COD, respectively. Furthermore, the engineering costs and project floor space required by the MIC reactor are less than those in the case of the UASB reactor. The high-throughput sequencing analysis indicated that the dominant phyla (e.g. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes) were more abundant using the MIC reactor than with the UASB reactor, which may indicate WHJ degradation efficiency. Both reactors had similar predominant methanogens, suggesting that acetoclastic methanogenesis was the predominant metabolic pathway of methane formation. The results of this study provide new insights into the sustainable management of water hyacinth as a resource by establishing a regional ecosystem with biogas engineering applications.

Novel start-up process for the efficient degradation of high COD wastewater with up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket technology and a modified internal circulation reactor.

To avoid wastage of water resources and operating cost increases caused by the traditional start-up process of large amounts of dilution influent chemical oxygen demand (COD), a novel start-up process (NSP) was developed and verified with water hyacinth juice (WHJ) on an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) and modified internal circulation (MIC) reactor. Results show that UASB and MIC reactors were started successfully and that the MIC reactor exhibited a superior performance. The NSP time of the MIC reactor (46 days) was less than that of the UASB reactor (52 days), although the start-up organic loading rate (OLR) of the MIC reactor was higher than that of the UASB reactor. Interestingly, high-throughput sequencing analysis indicated that the reactor configuration significantly impacted the microbial diversity, however, the UASB and MIC reactors had similar predominant methanogens: Methanosaeta and Methanosarcina. Therefore, acetoclastic methanogenesis is the primary pathway of methane formation during WHJ treatment.