Bio-hydrogen Production from Beer Wastewater in an Internal Circulation (IC) Reactor

ABSTRACT

An internal circulation (IC) using hydrogen-producing anaerobic granular sludge as seed sludge and beer wastewater as substrate was employed to evaluate the effect of hydrogen production and the performance of reactor. Running at the temperature of 35±1 °C, the pH value of influent controlled is 5.5 and organic loading rate (OLR) from 30 kg COD/(m3●d) to 42 kg COD/(m3●d), the IC reactor presents a high hydrogen production ability as the hydrogen production rate (HPR) maximized at 6.0-6.83 m3/(m3●d). Hydrogen volume content was estimated to be 42-46% of the total biogas and the biogas was free of methane throughout the study. COD removal efficiency could reach 20-30% and the dissolved fermentation products were predominated by ethanol with the concentration of 900-950 mg/L, which accounts for 45%- 56% of the total liquid products. These values may imply that the IC reactor is a kind of feasible fermentative hydrogen production equipment.

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