Monday, April 19, 2010
12-16

Continuous hydrogen production from molasses co-fermenting with liquid swine manure in an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor

Xiao Wu, Jun Zhu, and Wanying Yao. Univerisity of Minnesota, 35838 120th ST, Waseca, MN 56093

To industrialize fermentative hydrogen production, a continuous process using a low-cost and non-sterile substrate with a readily available mixed microflora is desirable. This study investigated a one-day batch startup procedure using anaerobically digested dairy manure as seed sludge at 37°C, and continuous hydrogen production from original molasses as substrate, supplemented with or without swine manure at pH 5.0 and 37±1°C. Results indicated that addition of swine manure could not only supply a nutrient source but also assisted the formation of granular sludge and solid retention as well. At 24h hydraulic retention time, hydrogen yields for molasses co-fermenting swine manure achieved up to 1.7 mol/mol hexose converted and remained stable during the experiment of 20 days. But the production of hydrogen was completely inhibited within 7 days using single molasses as substrate due to insufficiency of nutrient and washout of microflora. However, the inhibited system could be quickly recovered by simply adding swine manure, and returned to a steady state of 1.3 mol/mol hexose within 5 days. Molasses co-fermenting with swine manure using an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor system has accomplished a continuous hydrogen evolution process economically, sustainably and efficiently.

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