Hydrogenic and methanogenic fermentation of birch and conifer pulps

Marika E. Nissilä, Ya-Chieh Li, Shu-Yii Wu, Chiu-Yue Lin and Jaakko A. Puhakka

Applied Energy, 2012, vol. 100, issue C, 58-65

Abstract: Conifer and birch pulp fermentation to hydrogen and methane was studied using dry and wet pulps with a compost enrichment culture at a pH range from 6 to 9. Hydrogen was produced at each pH, whilst methane was produced at all other pH values except pH 6 with dry conifer pulp and pH 9. Hydrogen and methane yields were generally higher with birch than with conifer pulp and the overall energy yields were higher with wet than dry pulp. The highest hydrogen and methane yields were 560mL H2/g TS with wet birch pulp at pH 6 and 4800mL CH4/g TS with wet conifer pulp at pH 7, respectively. Fermentation of dry pulps at pH 6 resulted in 160mL H2/g TS. Hydrogenic bacteria belonging to phyla Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria were present in the cultures. Hydrogen was also produced from chemically hydrolyzed pulps. The highest hydrogen yield from dry conifer pulp hydrolysate was 63mLH2/g TS. In summary, hydrogen and energy (calculated as H2) yields were higher with direct fermentation than from chemically hydrolyzed pulps. However, chemical hydrolysis followed by hydrogen production required less than 10days compared to 28days required for direct pulp fermentation to hydrogen.

Keywords: Biohydrogen; Methane; Dark fermentation; Bacterial hydrolysis; Chemical hydrolysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261912004576
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

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:eee:appene:v:100:y:2012:i:c:p:58-65

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2012.06.015

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().