Comparing the Bio-Hydrogen Production Potential of Pretreated Rice Straw Co-Digested with Seeded Sludge Using an Anaerobic Bioreactor under Mesophilic Thermophilic Conditions

Asma Sattar, Chaudhry Arslan, Changying Ji, Sumiyya Sattar, Irshad Ali Mari, Haroon Rashid and Fariha Ilyas
Additional contact information
Asma Sattar: College of Engineering, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210031, China
Chaudhry Arslan: College of Engineering, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210031, China
Changying Ji: College of Engineering, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210031, China
Sumiyya Sattar: Veterinary Research Institute, Lahore Cantt 54810, Pakistan
Irshad Ali Mari: Khairpur College of Engineering and Technology Sindh Agriculture University, Khairpur Mir 66020, Pakistan
Haroon Rashid: Department of Structures and Environmental Engineering, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38000, Pakistan
Fariha Ilyas: Department of Soil Science, Bahauddin Zakariya, University, Multan 60800, Pakistan

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Three common pretreatments (mechanical, steam explosion and chemical) used to enhance the biodegradability of rice straw were compared on the basis of bio-hydrogen production potential while co-digesting rice straw with sludge under mesophilic (37 °C) and thermophilic (55 °C) temperatures. The results showed that the solid state NaOH pretreatment returned the highest experimental reduction of LCH (lignin, cellulose and hemi-cellulose) content and bio-hydrogen production from rice straw. The increase in incubation temperature from 37 °C to 55 °C increased the bio-hydrogen yield, and the highest experimental yield of 60.6 mL/g VS removed was obtained under chemical pretreatment at 55 °C. The time required for maximum bio-hydrogen production was found on the basis of kinetic parameters as 36 h–47 h of incubation, which can be used as a hydraulic retention time for continuous bio-hydrogen production from rice straw. The optimum pH range of bio-hydrogen production was observed to be 6.7 ± 0.1–5.8 ± 0.1 and 7.1 ± 0.1–5.8 ± 0.1 under mesophilic and thermophilic conditions, respectively. The increase in temperature was found useful for controlling the volatile fatty acids (VFA) under mechanical and steam explosion pretreatments. The comparison of pretreatment methods under the same set of experimental conditions in the present study provided a baseline for future research in order to select an appropriate pretreatment method.

Keywords: bio-hydrogen production; pretreatments; kinetic parameters; volatile fatty acids; response surface methodology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/3/198/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/3/198/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:9:y:2016:i:3:p:198-:d:65756

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().