Fermentative hydrogen and methane production from microalgal biomass (Chlorella vulgaris) in a two-stage combined process

Nils Wieczorek, Mehmet Ali Kucuker and Kerstin Kuchta

Applied Energy, 2014, vol. 132, issue C, 108-117

Abstract: This study investigated the hydrogen fermentation in a two-stage combined fermentation process (combination of dark fermentation for hydrogen (H2) production from microalgae and methane (CH4) fermentation from residues following H2 production process). Microalgae Chlorella vulgaris culture was used as a substrate. The hydrogen production from C. vulgaris ranges 1.75±1.50–19±2.94ml H2 g-VS−1 at different substrate dosages without enzymatic pre-treatment. A seven-fold increase in H2 production yields (19±2.94–135±3.11ml H2 g-VS−1) was observed with enzymatic pre-treatment (Onozuka R-10 and Macerozyme R-10) of the microalgae. The results of the CH4 fermentation show that the methane yields could be increased from 245±2.46 to 414±2.45ml CH4 g-VS−1 by using enzymatic pretreatment. In addition, the yield of the CH4 fermentation (14.86kJ/g-VS) has approximately the same order of magnitude in comparison to the two-stage combined fermentation process (14.46kJ/g-VS) in terms of energy production.

Keywords: Microalgae (C. vulgaris); Biohydrogen; Biomethane; Dark fermentation; Enzymatic pre-treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261914006655
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:132:y:2014:i:c:p:108-117

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.2014.07.003

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 ().