Biological Hydrogen Production from Corn-Syrup Waste Using a Novel System

Hisham Hafez, George Nakhla and Hesham El Naggar
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Hisham Hafez: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
George Nakhla: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
Hesham El Naggar: Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

Energies, 2009, vol. 2, issue 2, 1-11

Abstract: The reported patent-pending system comprises a novel biohydrogen reactor with a gravity settler for decoupling of SRT from HRT. The biohydrogenator was operated for 100 days at 37 °C, hydraulic retention time 8 h and solids retention time ranging from 2.2–2.5 days. The feed was a corn-syrup waste generated as a byproduct from an industrial facility for bioethanol production located in southwestern Ontario, Canada. The system was initially started up with a synthetic feed containing glucose at concentration of 8 g/L and other essential inorganics. Anaerobicaly-digested sludge from the St. Mary’s wastewater treatment plant (St. Mary, Ontario, Canada) was used as the seed, and was heat treated at 70 °C for 30 min to inhibit methanogens. After 10 days, when the hydrogen production was steady, the corn-syrup waste was introduced to the system. Glucose was the main constituent in the corn-syrup; its concentration was varied over a period of 90 days from 8 to 25 g/L. The change in glucose concentration was used to study the impact of variable organic loading on the stability of hydrogen production in the biohydrogenator. Hydrogen production rate increased from 10 L H 2 /L·d to 34 L H 2 /L·d with the increase of organic loading rate (OLR) from 26 to 81 gCOD/L·d, while a maximum hydrogen yield of 430 mL H 2 /gCOD was achieved in the system with an overall average of 385 mL H 2 /gCOD.

Keywords: biohydrogenator; corn-syrup; organic loading rate (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: 2009
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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