Biogas production from duckweed biomass

generated on wastewater treatment ponds.

G. Tonon; B. Magnus; R. A. Mohedano; W. R. M. Leite; R. H. R. Costa; P. Belli Filho.

*Federal University of Santa Catarina. Trindade, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina - Brazil - CEP 88040-
970; Department of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering – Tel.:+55(48)3721-7743;
(E-mail: gutonon@hotmail.com)

INTRODUCTION
The high amount of nitrogen and phosphorous released by anthropogenic wastes into natural ecosystems have caused irreversible environmental impacts such as
eutrophication. Conventional treatment systems commonly used for removing nutrients form wastewater are generally expensive considering energy costs. In this regard,
duckweed ponds have been successfully used to promote efficient removal of nutrients from wastewater, producing valuable biomass and fixing carbon. Moreover the biomass
harvested from treatment ponds have demonstrated a strong potential for energy generation, i.e. bioethanol and biogas [1]. In this context, the present study aimed to evaluate
the biodegradability and biogas production kinetic of duckweed biomass, obtained from a pilot wastewater treatment plant. Also, the tests comprised different pretreatment
methods intending to investigate a possible biogas yield enhancement.

METHODS
Duckweed pond system description and operation
The experiment was developed in a pilot-system located in Florianópolis City,
in south of Brazil. The system is composed by an equalization tanks (ET) with 5000L
and two duckweed ponds (DP1 and DP2 with 10m2 and 42cm depth each) covered
by duckweeds from species Landoltia punctata. The municipal wastewater was
applied in continuous flow rate of 200L.d-1 (HRT about 17 days and loading of 26
kgBOD.ha-1.d-1). During one year the efficiency of ponds system was assessed
trough samples collected weekly in inlet and outlet of each stage (Figure 1). Also the
biomass harvested during the treatment was stored and submitted to BMP
(Biochemical Methane Potential) assays and the yield was quantified (g.m-2.day-1).
BMP (Biochemical Methane Potential)
The BMP tests were carried out in a multi-batch reactor system (AMPTS II,
Lund, Sweden). Batches were performed in 500 mL glass bottles continuously
agitated by mechanical stirring and placed in a thermostatic water bath at 35oC.
Thermal, alkaline and biological (fermentation) pretreatments were performed in
triplicates and the effects on biogas and methane production were investigated. All
DISCUSSION
BMP assay
The cumulative biogas production of untreated and pretreated duckweed biomass
are shown in Figures 2. Biogas productions levelled off after 12 days for the untreated
duckweed. However a slight increase in this curve was observed thereafter, reaching a
new horizontal asymptote 25 days after the beginning of the batch. The maximum gas
production from the untreated biomass was 407 NmL of biogas (Figure 2) and 245
NmL of CH4.
Biogas productions from the thermal and alkaline pretreatments were quite similar
(p>0.05) and higher than the values obtained from the anaerobic digestion of untreated
biomass. Besides, both batches levelled off gas production likewise observed in the
untreated biomass. The fermented biomass yielded a maximum of 336 NmL of biogas
and 201 NmL of methane after 23 operational days. However, the curve showed in
Figure 2 does not take in account the biogas yields during the fermentation step
previously the start of the methanogenic phase (234 NmL of CH4).
500
Cumulative biogas (mL)

analytical methods to determine total and volatile solids, COD and volatile fatty acids 400
were performed in accordance with [3].
300

200
Condominium DP1
100
Q = 200L.d-1 ET 0
Biomass harvested

HRT=25d 0 5 10 15 20 25
DP2
Time (days)
Untreated Thermal Alkaline Fermentative
Figure 2 – Biogas productions of untreated and pre-treated duckweed biomass
Untreated (I/S = 1.4)
The untreated duckweed biomass seemed to present a diauxic degradation
pattern in which two exponential gas production phases were observed (Figure 2).
Thermal (I/S = 1.4) This behaviour is often observed with substrates which have a readily degradable
fraction of small molecules that require little hydrolysis, as well as a large molecular
Duckweed weight fraction that requires a lengthy hydrolysis period. In fact, all pre-treated
BMP (25 days) biomasses presented greater kh value, indicating an improvement in microbial
Alkaline (I/S = 1.4) Biomass
digestibility.
Since the digestibility of duckweed biomass increased after the pretreatments,
the obtained specific yields can be very promising for producing sustainable biofuel.
Fermentative (I/S = 2.5)
The specific biogas production ranged between 0.32 – 0.39 Nm³/kgVSfed (0.19 –
Figure 1 – Schematic representation of experimental system and BMP test. ET – Equalization 0.23 Nm³CH4/kgVSfed). As a consequence, SGP values increased from 22% to 36%
Tanks; DP1- Duckweed pond 1; DP2- Duckweed pond 2; I/S – Inoculum/Substrate ratio; BMP -
in respect to that obtained from the untreated biomass.
Biochemical Methane Potential
Table 2 - Methane productions from untreated and pre-treated duckweed biomass

RESULTS Pretreatment Kinetic constant (day-1)

SGP*
(Nm³biogas/kgVSfed)
Duckweed pilot system performed a high removal of nutrients from wastewater.
The first pond (DP1) could fit the effluent on Brazilian standard law (CONAMA 430) Untreated 0.027 (0.758) 0.25
by it self. The concentration values and standard deviation are shown in Table 1. Thermal 0.076 (0.898) 0.32
Alkaline 0.072 (0.991) 0.32
Table 1 - Applied load rate, mean values, standard deviation and total efficiency of evaluated.
DP1, DP2-duckwed pond I and II. Fermentation 0.137 (0.958) 0.39
*Specific Gas Production

Parameters Load rate DP1 DP1 DP2 Efficiency These outcomes highlight the possibility to use anaerobic digestion as an
(mg/L) (kg.ha-1.d-1) Inlet Outlet outlet (%) alternative to enhance and integrate the duckweed biomass management, with the
recovering of biogas as a renewable energy.
TN 14.3 57.3 ± 14 22.1 ± 9.6 4.4 ± 3.5 92.2
N-NH3 11.4 45.6 ± 9.5 16.4 ± 5.3 1.5 ± 1.4 96.6 CONCLUSIONS
PT 1.6 6.4 ± 1.5 2.2 ± 11.2 0.5 ± 0.6 92.2 • Good efficiencies of TN, TP and COD removal with 92.2%, 92.2% and 69.8%,
respectively.
P-PO4 1.0 4.1 ± 2.1 1.3 ± 1.0 0.2 ± 0.4 96.1
• The highest specific biogas production was obtained with fermentative pretreatment
COD 25.2 100.6±52.2 39.9±10.8 30.3±9 69.8 (0.39 Nm³biogas/kgVS), followed by thermal and alkaline pretreatment (both 0.32
Nm³biogas/kgVS).
The mean value of growth rate found during the whole period was about 6.8 • The highest hydrolysis constant was obtained by fermentation pretreatment (0.137
g.m-2.d-1 or 25 ton.ha-1.year-1, considering dry weight. day-1) and the lowest was the untreated duckweed (0.027 day-1 ).
[1]Cui, W.; Cheng, J. J. (2015) Growing duckweed for biofuel production: a review. Plant Biology 17 (1) 16–23.
[2]Zhao, X., Moatesa, G.K. Wellnera, N., Collinsa, S.R.A., Colemanb, M.J., Waldrona, K.W. (2014) Chemical characterisation and analysis of the cell wallpolysaccharides of duckweed (Lemna minor). Carbohydrate Polymers
111 410–418.
[3] APHA, AWWA, WPCF, 2005. Standard Methods for analysis of water and wastewater. 21th ed. American Public Health Association, Washington, DC, USA.
[4] Mohedano, R. A., Velho,V. F., Costa, R. H. R., Hofmann S. M., Belli Filho, P. (2012) Nutrient recovery from swine waste and protein biomass production using duckweed ponds (Landoltia punctata): Southern Brazil. Water
Science and Technology. 65 (11),2042-2048.
Acknowledgement:

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