Production of Hydrogen and Methane from Banana Peel by Two Phase Anaerobic Fermentation

Abstract

A two phase anaerobic digestion of banana peel is an attractive process for producing hydrogen and methane. Comparative performance and total energy recovery between two phase process (sequential hydrogen and methane fermentation) and one phase process (methane fermentation) in were evaluated in batch reactor under mesophilic incubation at varying ratios of feedstock to microbial inoculum (F/M) ranging from 2.5 – 10. F/M ratios influence biogas yield, production rate, and potential. Best performance of one phase methane fermentation was observed at F/M of 5.0. At this condition, methane yield, production rate, and potential were 251.3mL g-1 VS, 2.05mL h-1, and 352.9mL, respectively. Hydrogen and methane yields of 209.9 and 284.1mL g-1 VS mL g-1 VS were achieved at F/M of 5.0 in two stage process. Acetic acid is the main volatile fatty acids (VFAs) produced in the hydrogen fermentation stage. Little amount of VFAs were accumulated in methane fermentation in both stage processes. Total energy recovery in two stage process is higher than that in one stage by 81%. This work demonstrated two phase achieved a better performance than one phase fermentation of banana peel.