Nowadays world is facing energy crisis due to the limited availability of traditional fossil fuels and there is an increasing trend towards the use of cheap and readily available biomass for renewable energy production. Biogas production from biomass is best renewable energy source. Study was made to see the biomethanation potential of common weed Ipomoea carnea. It is an exotic weed distributed in Asia and Africa. In India it is common weed in fields, ponds, riversides and wet places. Revealing its wide ecological amplitude, systematic study was undertaken to examine the biomethanogenic potential alone and in combination with distillery waste. Distilleries are adjusant industries of many sugar factories for alcohol production. Huge quantity of spent wash is generated during distillation having low pH, high COD, BOD values and dissolved solids. It is used effective substrate for biomethanation. The weed was used in original form and after mild alkali treatment to see effect of softening of tissue. There was marked increase in biogas production after pretreatment. Mixing of distillery waste enhanced the capacity of weed to produce biogas. One liter capacity of biogas digester loaded with slurry from ongoing dung based biogas plant as initial seeding material, gradual stepwise removal of dung replaced by weed and distillery waste, biogas production in digestor was measured by water displacement method. Parameters for biomethanation of admixture of weed biomass and distillery waste were optimized using 4 L capacity digesters. It was found that optimal parameters were 25 days retention time, 7.5 pH and 33-38 0 C ambient temperature. Biomethanation parameters were optimized at 4L digester level and used for 25, 50, and 100 L capacity digester for scale up studies. In general, Ipomoea carnea showed best results alone as well as in combination with distillery waste. Use of this weed and distillery waste can be made to supplement conventional substrate like dung to augment the biogas production.
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