Integrated pre-treatment stage of biosorbent – sonication for mixed brewery and restaurant effluents to enhance the photo-fermentative hydrogen production

Abstract

In this study an integrated pre-treatment stage of waste banana peel biosorbent and sonication was investigated to qualify a mixture of brewery (BE) and restaurant (RE) effluents for photo fermentative hydrogen production without using standard medium. Different blending ratios of brewery and restaurant effluents and different sonication amplitudes (30, 60, and 90%) and sonication time (15, 25, 35, and 45 min) were investigated. The experimental results demonstrated that applying the proposed integrated pre-treatment (2 g L−1 waste banana peel biosorbent and 35 min sonication at 60% amplitude) for a mixture of 70% RE and 30% BE enhanced the cumulative biohydrogen production to 110 ± 4 mL (144% enhanced), while applying single pre-treatment stage (2 g L-1 banana peels waste biosorbent) enhanced the cumulative biohydrogen production to 83 mL (84% enhanced). Furthermore, more than 46% of soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) removal was achieved during photo-fermentative hydrogen production process. The results also demonstrated that the proposed integrated pre-treatment stage is a promising technique not only for enhancing the biohydrogen production but also contributes in the treatment of the wastewater by reducing the COD.