Development and testing of a bioreactor for production of hydrogen
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2009-04-01T11:37:53Z
Authors
Kalala, Bukasa
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
A laboratory-scale anaerobic Fluidised Bed Bioreactor (FBBR) was designed and
constructed for hydrogen gas (H2) production using a sucrose-based synthetic
wastewater. In the first experiment, the anaerobic FBBR was inoculated with two
facultative anaerobic bacteria Citrobacter freundii (Cf1) (Accession number:
EU046372) and Enterobacter cloacae (Ecl) (Accession number: EU046373) to study
their H2 productivity capacity. Granulated activated carbon was used to initiate the
growth and development of bacterial granules. For granule production the hydraulic
retention time (HRT) was gradually reduced from 8 to 0.5 h. Hydrogen production
and sucrose consumption was investigated at HRTs ranging from 8 to 0.5 h. Sucrose
was converted into volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and biogas (essentially H2).
Temperature and pH of the anaerobic FBBR were controlled at 37±1ºC and 5.6±0.1
respectively. The H2 production rate (HPR) reached 138mmol/(h.L) at 0.5 h HRT.
Acetic, butyric and propionic acids were detected at 104.5±21.06, 76.13±16.81 and
24.91±2.67 mg/L respectively. Results showed that Ecl and Cf1 were able to convert
sucrose into soluble and biogas products with high rate of H2 gas production.
In the second experiment, a heat and acid treated sample of activated sewage sludge
from an anaerobic sewage works was used as the inoculum for growing the granular
bed in the anaerobic FBBR. The anaerobic FBBR was operated according to
conditions described in the first experiment. HPR reached a maximum of 130.1
mmol/(h.L) at 0.5 h HRT with constant influent sucrose concentration of 17.65 g/L.
In both experiments the influent sucrose concentration in the bioreactor expressed in
terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) was 20 gCOD/L. Optimal sucrose to
hydrogen ration was observed at a HRT of 2 h and led to a H2 yield (YH2) of 1.61
mmol-H2/mmol-sucrose.