Hydrodynamic design of down-flow packed bed reactor regulated the biohydrogen production and microbial enrichment

Zexi Zhang, Ke Ding, Xiaojun Ma, Shuai Tang, Zixin Wang, Haifeng Lu, Weizhong Jiang and Buchun Si

Energy, 2023, vol. 271, issue C

Abstract: The hydrodynamic regulation, by adjusting microbial carrier filling strategies, plays a critical role in packed bed reactors (PBRs) for biohydrogen production, but the relationship between hydrodynamic characteristics, microbial enrichment and hydrogen production has not been fully understood. In this study, hydrodynamic characteristics of different filling strategies in PBRs were designed and analyzed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. Further, the hydrogen production and microbial structure during the continuous operation of PBRs with different filling approaches were compared. The optimal hydrodynamic design was PBR with vertical filling strategy (PBR-V) which had a more evenly distributed velocity magnitude than that with horizontal (PBR-H) arrangement, and it benefited mass transfer and further improved the reactor performance. PBR-V achieved the maximum hydrogen yield of 2.6 mol/mol glucose since the hydrodynamic design favored hydrogen production (butyrate-type fermentation) and suppressed hydrogen-consuming reactions (propionate-type fermentation). In addition, the PBR-V had a quicker start-up and favored the biomass attachment to the filling carriers. A higher abundance of hydrogen producer Clostridiaceae (89.2%) in PBR-V during start-up than that in PBR-H was also confirmed. This study provides insight into hydrodynamic and microbial selection mechanisms, and guides the design of future anaerobic high-rate reactors for efficient biohydrogen production.

Keywords: Packed bed reactor; Hydrogen production; Hydrodynamic design; Microbial structure; Dark fermentation; Computational fluid dynamics simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:271:y:2023:i:c:s036054422300453x

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.127059

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