Biohydrogen Research Articles

Optimization of hydrogen production from agricultural wastes using mixture design

Abstract: Hydrogen production from food waste, cattle manure, potato pulp and pig manure was optimized through using mixture design in this study. The synergic and antagonistic effects of the four substrates on hydrogen yield, substrate conversion efficiency and pH were evaluated. The results showed that the optimal proportion of food waste, cattle manure, potato pulp and pig manure were 61.6%, 38.4%, 0, and 0, respectively. Under the optimal condition, hydrogen yield of 21.0 mL/g VS with VS reduction of 29.4% and pH of 5 could be obtained. The interaction between food waste and cattle manure had strongest synergistic effects. Hydrogen was mainly produced by acetic-butyric metabolic pathway, and ammonification of protein played an important role in the maintenance of pH. Keywords: hydrogen, biohydrogen production, agricultural waste, dark fermentation, mixture design DOI: 10.3965/j.ijabe.20171003.2688 Citation: Liu S, Wang C Y, Yin L L, Li W Z, Wang Z J, Luo L N. Optimization of hydrogen production from agricultural wastes using mixture design. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2017; 10(3): 246–254.

Optimization of conditions for direct bio-hydrogen production from water hyacinth by clostridium diolis C32-KKU

Water hyacinth contains cellulose and hemicellulose which can be used as a substrate for bio-hydrogen production. Clostridium diolis C32-KKU, a cellulolytic bacterium, was employed to directly ferment water hyacinth to bio-hydrogen. The objective of this study was to optimize the direct bio-hydrogen production from water hyacinth by C. diolis C32-KKU. Two operation modes for bio-hydrogen production i.e. static and shaking modes were investigated. The results showed that the shaking mode was more effective than the static mode for hydrogen production. The shaking mode was then used to optimize bio-hydrogen production by variation of initial pH (4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 7.0, 7.5, 8.0, 8.5 and 9.0) and initial water hyacinth concentration (5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 g-dry weight (dw)/L). The maximum hydrogen production of 19 mL/L was obtained at the initial pH of 5.5 and water hyacinth concentration of 10 g-dw/L. The cellulase activity of 0.0081 unit/mL was obtained under the optimal condition. The results of this study showed that direct bio-hydrogen production from lignocellulosic materials could be feasible.

Biohydrogen production by microalgae isolated from the rice paddle field in Thailand

Hydrogen produced by cyanobacteria and green algae is a very interesting energy carrier because it is produced by a photosynthetic pathway using sunlight as an energy source. In this study, 59 cyanobacterial and green algal strains were isolated from soil and water sources of rice paddle field in Thailand. Out of them, 9 cyanobacterial isolates and 9 green algal isolates were purified. Among them, unicellular cyanobacterial isolate AngS1 showed the highest H 2 production rate. Its highest H 2 production rate of 389.630±72.084 nmolH 2 mg chl -1 h -1 was found in cells grown in BG11 for 1 week followed by incubating cells in BG11 0 for 24 hours and adaptation under dark anaerobic condition for 2 hours. The optimal concentrations of glucose, MgSO 4 .7H 2 O and Fe 3+ for H 2 production rate were 0.189 mmolC L -1 , 3 mM, and 20 μM, respectively. The highest H 2 accumulation of 4,174.364±278.324 nmolH 2 mg chl -1 was obtained when incubating cells in the optimal medium for 11 days.

Evaluation of different pretreatment methods to prepare an inoculum for bio-hydrogen production from cassava starch wastewater

This research aimed to explore suitable pretreatments of anaerobic mixed cultures from the upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) granules and sediment before using them as inocula for biohydrogen fermentation. Four pretreatments were employed, i.e., dry heat, wet heat, acid, and base. Pre-treated anaerobic mixed cultures were used to produce hydrogen from cassava starch wastewater at an initial substrate concentration and pH of 25 g-COD/L and 5.5, respectively. UASB granule pre-treated at 105 °C for 2 h, gave a maximal hydrogen production and hydrogen production rate of 173.10 ml H2/L and 12.87 ml H 2/L h, respectively. Maximal hydrogen production (173.10 ml H2/L) was 17 times greater than that of the control (cassava starch wastewater only) (9.67 ml H2/L), indicating a significant enhancement in hydrogen production by use of pretreated seed inoculum. At maximal hydrogen production, a total energy production of 1.86 kJ/L was obtained.

Isolation and Cultivation of Purple non-Sulfur Bacteria for Bio-hydrogen Production Experiment

Isolation and Cultivation of Purple non-Sulfur Bacteria for Bio-hydrogen Production Experiment

Cost-benefit analysis, LCOE and evaluation of financial feasibility of full commercialization of biohydrogen

This investigation performs a cost-benefit analysis with economic incentives concepts (opportunity cost and profit index), discounted indices and adjustment techniques (two-tier learning curve and cost-capacity scaling methods) to support comprehensive financial decisions about investment on biohydrogen plant. A life-cycle assessment is utilized to construct four scales of the production of commercialization, which are the bench/laboratory scale, pilot scale, demonstration scale, and commercial scale, to evaluate entire economic feasibility.The results reveal that the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of biohydrogen will be approximately USD 2 to 3/kg. All financial indices reveal biohydrogen is economically feasible of investment and will be commercialized successfully before the timelines in many official reports. Results reveal decision-making criteria should include the economic incentives. LCOE of biohydrogen is less sensitive to the cost of biomass feedstock, which is more sensitive to the CAPEX, OPEX.

Dark fermentation of crude glycerol by locally isolated microorganisms to hydrogen

The need for sustainable management of the waste along with the availability of crude glycerol (CG) has generated interest on glycerol-based cultures. To date, CG is used as cheap substrate in fermentation in replace of glucose or other types of substrates. In this study, raw CG is used as a sole substrate for the locally isolated microorganisms from biodiesel sludge to produce bio-hydrogen via dark-fermentation. Prior to the isolation of potential microbes, preliminary test was done to ensure that hydrogen is among the gases produced during the fermentation. This preliminary test was conducted using the wastewater. Mixed-microbes including the potential microbes were expected to be in the wastewater and help in the bioconversion of both pure and crude glycerol to hydrogen. The experiment using pure commercial glycerol was also conducted to compare the performance and conversion of the hydrogen. The gas was collected in a sampling bag. Analysis of the gas was done using GC-TCD with argon as carrier gas. Isolation and screening of potential hydrogen producer has successfully isolated 10 potential microorganisms. Screening was based on their ability to produce gas globules in the agar. Findings on the gas analysis showed that the microorganisms produced only hydrogen and carbon dioxide. No traces of methane was observed from the GC analysis indicating that no methanogenic microbes in the mixedcultures, and no foam was produced during the dark-fermentation using crude glycerol as carbon source. In contrast, foam is formed in the fermentation of pure commercial glycerol. From the findings, it can be concluded that the isolated microbes has the potential to produce hydrogen from the raw crude glycerol.

Isolation and characterization of a new [FeFe]-hydrogenase from Clostridium perfringens.

This paper reports the first characterization of an [FeFe]-hydrogenase from a Clostridium perfringens strain previously isolated in our laboratory from a pilot-scale bio-hydrogen plant that efficiently produces H2 from waste biomasses. On the basis of sequence analysis, the enzyme is a monomer formed by four domains hosting various iron-sulfur centres involved in electron transfer and the catalytic center H-cluster. After recombinant expression in Escherichia coli, the purified protein catalyzes H2 evolution at high rate of 1645±16s(-1) . The optimal conditions for catalysis are in the pH range 6.5-8.0 and at the temperature of 50°C. EPR spectroscopy showed that the H-cluster of the oxidized enzyme displays a spectrum coherent with the Hox state, whereas the CO-inhibited enzyme has a spectrum coherent with the Hox -CO state. FTIR spectroscopy showed that the purified enzyme is composed of a mixture of redox states, with a prevalence of the Hox ; upon reduction with H2 , vibrational modes assigned to the Hred state were more abundant, whereas binding of exogenous CO resulted in a spectrum assigned to the Hox -CO state. The spectroscopic features observed are similar to those of the [FeFe]-hydrogenases class, but relevant differences were observed given the different protein environment hosting the H-cluster.

Microalgae Harvesting Methods for Industrial Production of Biodiesel: Critical Review and Comparative Analysis

Microalgae biomass can be used to produce numerous value added products such as biodiesel, bioethanol, biogas and bio hydrogen, fish feed, animal feed, human food supplements and skin care products. Production of value added products from microalgae biomass requires growing and recovery of the algae biomass and extraction and downstream processing of the desired product. However, the major obstacle for using microalgae biomass on an industrial-scale for the production of biodiesel and other value added products is the dewatering step which accounts for 20-30% of the total costs associated with microalgae production and processing. The aim of this study was to review the current methods used for harvesting and concentrating microalgae and to perform a comparative analysis in order to determine the most efficient and economically viable dewatering methods for large scale processing of microalgae biomass. The harvesting techniques investigated included sedimentation, vacuum filtration, pressure filtration, cross flow filtration, disc stack centrifugation, decanter centrifuge, dispersed air floatation, dissolved air flotation, fluidic oscillation, inorganic flocculation, organic flocculation, auto-flocculation, bio-flocculation electrolytic coagulation, electrolytic flocculation and electrolytic floatation. Eight criteria were used for evaluation of these microalgae harvesting techniques: (a) dewatering efficiency (b) cost (c) toxicity (d) suitability for industrial scale (e) time (f) species specificity (g) reusability of media and (h) maintenance. Each criterion was assigned a score between 7 and 15 based on its degree of importance. Higher values were given to the criteria that were deemed most important for development of an efficient and economic large scale dewatering method for microalgae whereas lower values were given to criteria that were deemed necessary for determining a suitable method but were considered less important. The results indicated that of the 16 methods evaluated, 4 scored values of 80/100 and above and were deemed suitable for harvesting microalgae on an industrial scale. Three were physical techniques (disc stack centrifuge (87/100), cross flow filtration (84/100), decanter centrifugation (82/100)) and the forth was the organic flocculation (80) method. These techniques were deemed suitable for large scale use because of their effectiveness, low operational costs, suitability for numerous species, rapidness, minimal maintenance requirement and being environmentally friendly. The other methods were deemed unsuitable because they are not effective in dewatering a wide array of microalgae species, not suited for large volumes, costly and require high maintenance. Although each of the optimum techniques was deemed suitable for harvesting of microalgae on its merit, a combination of methods can also be used to enhance the recovery efficiency and improve the economics. The use of organic flocculation as an initial harvesting step to concentrate the algae suspension and the centrifugation (or filtration) as a secondary dewatering step will reduce the time and costs associated with dewatering. Flocculation allows for effective removal of algae from large amounts of liquid media and as such the costs associated with energy intensive centrifugation and filtration techniques (used individually) can be reduced by using them as secondary techniques since less volumes of microalgae suspension will undergo the secondary treatment.

ENERGY CROPS FOR BIO FUEL AND FOOD SECURITY

In light of the recent rise in global food p rices, much of the publications on crop - based biofuel production focus on the potential impacts on food security. The bio fuels include bio ethanol, bio butanol, biodiesel, vegetable oils, bio methanol, pyrolysis oils, biogas, and bio hydrogen. There are two global biomass based liquid t ransportation fuels that might replace gasoline and diesel fuel. These are bioethanol and biodiesel. About 60 % of global bioethanol production comes from sugarcane and 40 % from other crops. The central policy of biofuel concerns job creation, greater eff iciency in t he general business environment and protection of the environment. The use of biofuels decreases the external energy dependence, promotion of regional engineering, increased R and D, decrease in impact of electricity production and transformati on; increases the level of services for the rural population, creation of employment, etc. There is considerable controversy about the impact of biofuels on food security in developing countries. A major concern is that biofu els reduce food security by inc reasing food prices. In this paper we use survey evidence to assess the impact of castor production on poor and food insecure rural households in Ethiopia. About 1/3 of poor farmers have allocated on average 15 % of their land to the production of castor b eans under contract in biofuel supply chains. Castor production significantly improves their food security: they have fewer months without food and the amount of food they consum e increases. Castor cultivation is beneficial for participating households’ fo od security in several ways: by generating cash income from castor contracts, they can store food for the lean season; castor beans preserve well on the field which allows sales when farmers are in need of cash (or food); spillover effe cts of castor contra cts increases the productivity of food crops. Increased food crop productivity offsets the amount of land used for castor so that the total loc al food supply is not affected.

HyTIME - Combined Biohydrogen and Biogas Production from 2nd Generation Biomass

Employment of renewable sources rather than fossil fuels in the production of hydrogen is an important step to achieve a sustainable and environmental friendly hydrogen economy in the future. Besides biomass gasification, production of hydrogen from renewable sources is also possible in a fermentative way through thermophilic (dark) fermentation of biomass.In the European project HyTIME nine partners including universities, knowledge centres and industry work on an integrated, continuous bioprocess for the decentral production of 1-10 kg hydrogen/d. The strategy in HyTIME is to employ thermophilic bacteria, which have shown superior yields in H2 production from biomass in the previous FP6 IP HYVOLUTION.In this paper, mass and energy balances for process routes based on different feedstock options will be presented and discussed, giving a first glance at feedstock, water, heat and utility demand. Mass and energy balances for the involved process steps and overall process routes are calculated via process simulation tool Aspen Plus (V7.3.2, Aspen Technology Inc., 2012).It is shown that biohydrogen can be successfully produced from verge grass and wheat straw. Based on the experimental results and literature data, process is scaled up to produce 10 kg biohydrogen/d in the raw gas stream. To achieve this, it is necessary to supply 90 kg/h wet verge grass or 46 kg/h wheat straw. Besides biohydrogen, biogas is produced from process residuals and utilized for heat and power generation. According to the calculations, it is possible to produce 48.5 kW and 45.8 kW heat as well as44.6 kW and 42.2 kW power, from verge grass and wheat straw residuals, respectively.Presented results form the basis for critical evaluation of the proposed process parameters and process routes and give hints for process improvement by applying process integration.

Bio-hydrogen Production from Cheese Whey by Dark Fermentation

Bio-hydrogen Production from Cheese Whey by Dark Fermentation

Temperature variation of reaction liquid of ultrafine corn stover in photosynthetic hydrogen production

The thermo-physical phenomena existing in the process of hydrogen production by photosynthetic bacteria with ultrafine corn stover directly affect the energy consumption of biological hydrogen production system, the activity of hydrogen production, and hydrogen production rate. In order to discover theoretical basis for optimizing process parameters of the photosynthetic bioreactor for ultrafine corn stover, experimental investigation was conducted to identify the effects of the granularity of ultrafine corn stover on the temperature variation using a self-developed photosynthetic bio-hydrogen thermal-effect experimental device. This paper describes experimental research on temperature variation of reaction liquid with ultrafine-ground corn stover in photosynthetic hydrogen production, and on the temperature field and change trend of reaction liquid of corn stover with different granularities in bio-hydrogen production. Experimental results showed that, the greater the granularity of corn stover, the slower the temperature rising speed of the reaction liquid with corn stover in the initial phase of photosynthetic hydrogen production, and the lower the relative average temperature of reaction liquid in photosynthetic hydrogen production. This result is of great significance in research on the photosynthetic hydrogen production technology from biomass, providing a theoretical basis for thermal effect in solar photosynthetic hydrogen production. Keywords: corn stover, photosynthetic hydrogen production, ultrafine grinding, bioreactor, granularity, temperature DOI: 10.3965/j.ijabe.20140705.009 Citation: Zhang Q G, Wang Y K, Hu J J, Guo J, Zhang Z P, Jing Y Y, Xu G Y, Wang Y. Temperature variation of reaction liquid of ultrafine corn stover in photosynthetic hydrogen production. Int J Agric & Biol Eng, 2014; 7(5): 65－71.

Algae Biofuels Production Processes, Carbon Dioxide Fixation and Biorefinery Concept

Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms capable to produce lipids, carbohydrates, and proteins as major biomass fractions. Each of these has been studied to produce biofuels. As example biodiesel, bio ethanol, biogas, biooil and bio hydrogen by different processes and conditions. In addition, microalgae are considered an alternative for CO2 emissions fixation since this gas is used by their metabolism. Based on this sustainable alternative, microalgae are considered feedstock to integrate a Bio-refinery, in which different products can be obtained from biofuels to food. In this article, in addition to the literature revision for biofuels production from microalgae, drawbacks and bottlenecks from microalgae technologies are discussed.

Integration of Biohydrogen Production with Heat and Power Generation from Biomass Residues

The employment of renewable sources rather than fossil fuels in the production of hydrogen is an important step to achieve a sustainable hydrogen economy in the future. Besides biomass gasification, production of hydrogen from renewable sources is also possible in a fermentative way through thermophilic (dark) fermentation and/or photo-heterotrophic fermentation. Depending on pretreatment procedure, considerable heat demand is necessary to produce hydrogen from agricultural residues and food processing. While heat demand in the pretreatment step can be reduced by heat integration measures, significant heat input is still necessary in the dark fermentation step. The paper evaluates possible contributions of utilizing process residues to cover the heat demand of the biohydrogen production. Process options for three types of feedstock for biohydrogen production have been investigated towards the potential of heat self-supply of the process. Results show that the heat demand of biohydrogen production from barley straw and potato steam peels can be covered from heat of biogas utilization obtained from process residues. For feedstock thick juice still a heat deficit of 0.29 MW is observed.

Role of factors influencing on anaerobic process for production of bio hydrogen: Future fuel

The process of anaerobic treatment is indeed more complex than the aerobic systems, and for this reason, the operation of an anaerobic treatment system should have a solid understanding of the important factors like temperature, pH, bicarbonate alkalinity, VFA, inorganic salts, sulfide soluble salts, in operation, heavy metals and nutrient requirement, in operation and control and are associated with the stability of the biological process involved. Thus the review was directed especially to these.

Modeling and Parameter Estimation in Biofuel Discontinuous Production by Hydrogen Forming Bacteria (HFB)

Fil: Paulo, Cecilia Ines. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Bahia Blanca. Planta Piloto de Ingenieria Quimica (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional del Sur; Argentina

Bio Hydrogen Production from Pharmaceutical Waste Water Treatment by a Suspended Growth Reactor Using Environmental Anaerobic Technology

Bio Hydrogen Production from Pharmaceutical Waste Water Treatment by a Suspended Growth Reactor Using Environmental Anaerobic Technology

Bio Hydrogen Production from Pharmaceutical Waste Water Treatment by a Suspended Growth Reactor Using Environmental Anaerobic Technology

Hydrogen (H2) is considered as the future fuel. The present work onBio Hydrogen Production fromPharmaceuticalWaste Water Treatment by a Suspended Growth Reactor Using Environmental Anaerobic Technology. This is an appreciated approach at wealth generation through value addition to wastes. The optimization process included the selection of ideal co -substrate (sucrose) and nitrogen source (DAP) to examine the feasibility of hydrogen production from industrial effluent in a 50% -50% mixture of the complex feed and the industrial effluent. Hydrogen gas produced in the reactor is estimated using a gas sensor. This equi pment is a generic gas-monitoring instrument with microprocessor based electronics interfacing with std. 4 to 20 mA alarm/control systems. The inlet pH (feed) was maintained at 6 while the outlet pH monitored after detention time

PERANCANGAN AWAL PABRIK BIOHIDROGEN DARI LIMBAH CAIR PABRIK KELAPA SAWIT DENGAN FERMENTASI ANAEROBIK PADA KONDISI TERMOFILIK

Indonesia has a lot of natural resources which is deficient to fulfill the energy demand of consumers, particularly fuel. Therefore, the government keeps on promoting the search for alternative energy. One of these is hydrogen. Hydrogen is an environmental friendly product that does not produce carbon emissions. In the formation of hydrogen we can use carbohydrate-rich waste as a raw material and by using fermentation process. However, it is still limited research only. So this encourage us to design biohydrogen plant from palm oil mill effluent (POME) with the conditions of thermophilic anaerobic fermentation in order to accomplish the needs of consumers and contribute in developing clean technologies. For the production capacity of 495.1694 tons / year, the total investment required to build a factory of biohydrogen in Indonesia is Rp. 507,190,573,523, - with a total production cost of Rp. 354,636,600,139, -. Parameter feasibility of the production capacity of 495.1694 tons / year is the total product sales of Rp 174,261,989.701, - and net income 180,030,185,327, -. Profit Margin (PM) 41.9% Break Even Point (BEP) 45.24%, Return on Investment (ROI) 35.5%, Pay Out Time (POT) 2.82 years, Return of Network (RON) 59.16%, Internal Rate of Return (IRR) 53.52 %.