Open AccessSurfactant‐supplemented mixed bacterial cultures to produce hydrogen from paperboard mill wastewater
Author(s) -
Farghaly Ahmed,
Tawfik Ahmed,
Eldin Ibrahim Mona Gamal
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
engineering in life sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.547
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1618-2863
pISSN - 1618-0240
DOI - 10.1002/elsc.201400099
Subject(s) - chemistry , chemical oxygen demand , lignin , food science , hydrolysis , paper mill , wastewater , biodegradation , peg ratio , pulp and paper industry , hydrogen production , enzymatic hydrolysis , nuclear chemistry , propionate , effluent , biochemistry , hydrogen , waste management , organic chemistry , finance , engineering , economics
Paperboard mill wastewater (PMW) mainly comprises complex compounds such as polysaccharides and lignin that are recalcitrant to microbial and enzymatic action. Surfactants supplementation was found to improve the enzymatic hydrolysis and reduce lignin content during anaerobic digestion process. However, much less attention has been given for the effectiveness of surfactants addition on hydrogen production from PMW under hyperthermophilic conditions. In this study, the mixed bacterial culture was supplemented with surfactants, namely PEG 6000 and Tween 80 (T80), to enhance the biodegradation process and hydrogen yield (HY). The results showed that increasing the concentration of T80 from 0.25 to 1.75% v/v significantly ( p < 0.001) increased HY from 1.7 ± 0.02 to 2.6 ± 0.01 mmol/gCOD initial (where COD is chemical oxygen demand), respectively. However, with further increase in the concentration of T80 up to 2.5%, the HY dropped to 2 ± 0.04 mmol/gCOD initial . This was mainly due to a higher propionate (HPr) production. Similar trends were observed for PEG, where the maximum HY of 2.8 ± 0.02 mmol/gCOD initial was achieved at a concentration of 0.75 mg/L, which deteriorated at higher and lower concentrations of PEG. Fermentative hydrogen of 700 m 3 /day of PMW could support about 16.4% of total primary energy consumption of the factory.