초록
<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>Biological pretreatment with novel isolated microbial pure culture was utilised to pretreat water hyacinth to enhance its solubilisation followed by biogas production. Lignocellulose degrading bacterial strains isolated from soil (<I>Bordetella muralis VKVVG5</I>) (UN3d2), the gut of silverfish (<I>Citrobacter werkmanii VKVVG4</I>) (SFa2) and millipede (<I>Paenibacillus</I> sp. <I>VKVVG1</I>) (BrB2) were employed to optimise the ideal bacterial strain illustrating accelerated hydrolysis of water hyacinth. <I>Citrobacter werkmanii VKVVG4</I> pretreatment of water hyacinth with an optimum dosage of 10<SUP>9</SUP> CFU/mL and time of 4 days helped in achieving the highest solubilisation of 33.3%. Biochemical methane potential (BMP) test was conducted between untreated and <I>Citrobacter werkmanii VKVVG4</I> pretreated water hyacinth. Biochemical methane potential (BMP) test of pretreated water hyacinth illustrated faster start up period than the untreated water hyacinth. <I>Citrobacter werkmanii VKVVG4</I> (SFa2) pretreated water hyacinth illustrated a cumulative biogas production of 3737 ± 21 mL whereas untreated water hyacinth illustrated a cumulative biogas production of 3038 ± 13 mL on the 50<SUP>th</SUP> day. Scaled up batch (20 L) study demonstrated a three times increase in the cumulative biogas generation of the microbial pretreated water hyacinth than the untreated water hyacinth.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Novel bacterial pure cultures were utilised to pretreat water hyacinth. </LI> <LI> Microbial pretreatment showed enhanced solubilisation of water hyacinth. </LI> <LI> <I>Citrobacter werkmanii VKVVG4</I> illustrated highest solubilisation of water hyacinth. </LI> <LI> Microbial pretreatment improved biogas production from water hyacinth. </LI> </UL> </P>