Influence of the microbial inoculum on biohydrogen production by dark-fermentation in continuous reactors
2010
Rafrafi, Yan | Trably, Eric | Latrille, Eric, | Steyer, Jean-Philippe
The effect of the inoculum origin and heat treatment on biohydrogen (bioH2) production by dark-fermentation was investigated using a continuous-flow stirred-tank reactor (CSTR). Glucose was used as model substrate. Four inoculum sources were tested: an anaerobic digested sludge, a pre-fermented manioc, a freshly collected cæcotroph (i.e., soft fæces of rabbits) and finally a mixture of the 3 inocula. The operating conditions were the same for all the experiments and were optimal for bioH2 production (i.e., 37°C; pH 5.5; hydraulic retention time of 6h). The effect of the heat treatment was also investigated. All the inocula produced H2 from glucose and they presented significant different performances at steady state. The untreated anaerobic sludge led to the highest total H2 productivity (9.1 mmol H2.L-1.h-1) and the cæcotroph showed the highest performances in terms of H2 yield and specific H2 productivity (2.6 mol H2.mol-1 and 14.6 mmol H2.g-1 VSS.h-1 respectively). In order to produce the maximum quantity of hydrogen, the untreated anaerobic sludge seems to be the best inoculum. The heat treatment effect also depends on the inoculum; it influences positively manioc and cæcotroph H2 productivity but it impacts negatively the anaerobic sludge performances.
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