Enhancement effect of zero-valent iron nanoparticle and iron oxide nanoparticles on dark fermentative hydrogen production from molasses-based distillery wastewater

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of two different iron compounds (zero-valent iron nanoparticle: nZVI and iron oxide nanoparticles: nIO) and pH on fermentative biohydrogen production from molasses-based distillery wastewater. The nZVI and nIO of optimum particle sizes of 50 nm and 55 nm respectively were synthesized and applied for fermentative hydrogen (H2) production. The addition of nIO & nZVI at (0.7 g/L, pH: 6) resulted in the highest H2 yield, H2 production rate, H2 content and COD reduction. Moreover, the kinetic parameters of H2 production potential (P) and H2 production rate (Rm) increased to 387 mL, and 22.2 mL/h, respectively for nZVI, these values were 363 mL and 21.8 mL/h for nIO. The results obtained indicated the positive effect of nZVI and nIO addition on enhanced fermentative H2 production. The addition of nZVI & nIO resulted in 71% and 69.4% enhancement in biohydrogen production respectively.