Dark fermentative biohydrogen production using pretreated Scenedesmus obliquus biomass under an integrated paradigm of biorefinery

Abstract

In recent times, biohydrogen production from microalgal feedstock has garnered considerable research interests to sustainably replace the fossil fuels. The present work adapted an integrated approach of utilizing deoiled Scenedesmus obliquus biomass as feedstock for biohydrogen production and valorization of dark fermentation (DF) effluent via biomethanation. The microalgae was cultivated under different CO2 concentration. CO2-air sparging of 5% v/v supported maximum microalgal growth and carbohydrate production with CO2 fixation ability of 727.7 mg L−1 d−1. Thereafter, lipid present in microalgae was extracted for biodiesel production and the deoiled microalgal biomass (DMB) was subjected to different pretreatment techniques to maximize the carbohydrate recovery and biohydrogen yield. Steam heating (121 °C) in coherence with H2SO4 (0.5 N) documented highest carbohydrate recovery of 87.5%. DF of acid-thermal pretreated DMB resulted in maximum H2 yield of 97.6 mL g−1 VS which was almost 10 times higher as compared to untreated DMB (9.8 mL g−1 VS). Subsequent utilization of DF effluent in biomethanation process resulted in cumulative methane production of 1060 mL L−1. The total substrate energy recovered from integrated biofuel production system was 30%. The present study envisages a microalgal biorefinery to produce biohydrogen via DF coupled with concomitant CO2 sequestration.