Abstract
Inocula were collected from four different sources such as Jajmau tannery waste treatment plant (ITW), Jajmau municipal waste treatment (IMW), Unnao distillery (IDW) and a batch reactor, in which the sludge of a field scale biogas reactor was added to cow dung slurry to develop inoculum (IBS). A combination of these mixed inocula were used for biogas production at 35°C in laboratory scale reactor (10 L capacity) and the average yield of biogas (0.547 Lg(-1) volatile solid (VS)) and methane (0.323 Lg(-1)VS) in 41 d was higher in case of mixed inoculum IMW (1) (IMW+IBS), with maximum methane content in biogas (68% during 27-30 d), as compared to other mixed inocula as well as control i.e. ITW (1) (ITW+IBS), IDW(1) (IDW+IBS) and IBS. The corresponding yields of gas were biogas (0.505, 0.536 and 0.456 Lg(-1)VS), methane (0.288, 0.305, and 0.245 Lg(-1)VS) where as, the corresponding maximum methane content in biogas was 62% during 29-33d, 64% during 29-33 d and 62% during 27-29 d in ITW(1), IDW(1) and IBS.