Surfactants-induced photo-fermentative biohydrogen production from corncob

Abstract

Surfactants could improve the mass transfer capacity by avoiding agglomeration and sedimentation of substrate. This study evaluated the effects of diverse Tween series surfactants on hydrogen production performance of photo-fermentative biohydrogen production (PFHP) process. Tween 80 was found to be the most suitable surfactant. The maximum cumulative hydrogen yield (CHY) reached 49.38 ± 1.90 mL/g TS under 0.20% (v/v) Tween 80 addition. Highest energy recovery efficiency of 3.41 ± 0.13% and substrate conversion efficiency of 94.93 ± 0.44% were obtained, which was 50.37% and 1.7% higher than that of the control group, respectively. The effect of diverse Tween series surfactants on photosynthetic bacteria (PSB) was further studied. Results showed that Tween 80 significantly improved the growth and activity of PSB. The modified Han-Levenspiel model was adopted to analyze the effects of Tween 80 addition on PFHP. Results indicated that the reaction system was non-competitive inhibition, the predicted critical concentration of Tween 80 was 0.42% (v/v). This study provides a way to increase the CHY of corncob by the PFHP process.