• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.467-475
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• 2007

This study was conducted to examine temperature effects on hydrogen production in anaerobic fermentation. 18 batch reactors were operated at mesophilic ($35^{\circ}C$) and thermophilic conditions ($55^{\circ}C$) to achieve maximum hydrogen production in anaerobic fermentation. Optimum hydrogen production conditions were also investigated at each temperature. Different trends were observed regarding pH effects on hydrogen production. This effect was not significant for mesophilic fermentation ($35^{\circ}C$). In this case, pH may not drop to interfere hydrogen production during the test. However, hydrogen production decreased without pH control for thermophilic condition ($55^{\circ}C$). Effects of heat treatment were observed for both fermentation process. Hydrogen production with heat treatment was higher than hydrogen production without heat treatment for both fermentation processes. The amount of produced hydrogen for each substrate concentration with temperature changes showed that more hydrogen was produced at $35^{\circ}C$ than at $55^{\circ}C$.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.299-306
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• 2005

Anaerobic fermentation of food waste (FW) and waste activated sludge (WAS) for hydrogen production was performed in CSTR (Continuous Stirred tank reactor) under various HRTs and volumetric mixing ratio (V/V) of two substrates, FW and WAS. The specific hydrogen production potential of FW was higher than that of WAS. However, pH drop in the CSTR for hydrogen production from FW was higher than that from WAS. The maintenance of desired pH during fermentative hydrogen production is regarded as the most important operation parameter for the stable hydrogen production. Therefore, when the potential of hydrogen production from FW and better buffer capacity of WAS, the proper mixture of FW and WAS for fermentative hydrogen production were considered as a useful complementary substrate. The maximum yield of specific hydrogen production, 140 mL/g VSS, was found at HRT of 2 day and the volumetric mixing ratio of 20:80 (WAS : FW). The spatial distribution of hydrogen producing bacteria was observed in anaerobic fermentative reactor using fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) method.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.80-85
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• 2009

The effects of various organic wastes on anaerobic fermentative hydrogen production were studied using enriched mixed microflora in batch tests. Rotten fruit, corn powder and organic wastewater enriched with sulfate (up to 1,000 mg/L) were used for experiments. Maximum hydrogen production (547.1 mL) was observed from rotten apple with initial substrate concentration of 132.2 g COD/L. The experimental result on sulfate enriched organic wastewater indicated that hydrogen production is not adversely influenced by relatively high sulfate concentration. Residual sulfate content remained at 96-98 % after 75 hours of reaction, which showed that no major sulfate reduction was occurred at pH 5.3-5.5 in the reactor. The volatile fatty acid (VFA) fractions produced during the reaction was in the order of butyrate > acetate > propionate in all experiments. The results of this study would be useful for controlling the conditions on fermentative hydrogen production using different feedstocks.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.187-193
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• 2004

In this study, Anaerobic sewage sludge in a batch reactor operation at $35^\circ{C}$ was used as the seed to investigate the effect of pretreatments of waste activated sludge and to evaluate its hydrogen production potential by anaerobic fermentation. Various pretreatments including physical, chemical and biological means were conducted to utilize for substrate. As a result, SCODcr of alkali and mechanical treatment was 15 and 12 times enhanced, compared with a supernatant of activated sludge. And SCODcr was 2 time increase after re-treatment with biological hydrolysis. Those were shown that sequential hybridized treatment of sludge by chemical & biological methods to conform hydrogen production potential in bath experiments. When buffer solution was added to the activated sludge, hydrogen production potential increased as compare with no addition. Combination of alkali and mechanical treatment was higher in hydrogen production potential than other treatments.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.145-155
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• 2008

This paper deals with an economic evaluation of hydrogen production by fermentation. We evaluate the economic feasibility of domestic hydrogen production by fermentation utilizing glucose and waste water sludge in terms of hydrogen production prices. In addition, we make some sensitivity analysis of hydrogen prices by changing the values of input factors such as the price of glucose, the capital cost of the hydrogen production system, and the hydrogen production yields. The estimated hydrogen prices of the two-step dark-light hydrogen production by fermentation utilizing glucose was $5,347won/kgH_2$, and the single-step hydrogen production by anaerobic fermentation utilizing waste water sludge was $4,255won/kgH_2$, respectively. It is expected that the hydrogen production price by anaerobic fermentation can be reduced if we produce methane or hydrogen utilizing by-products such as alcohols and organic acids, or the government imposes some legal regulations on the treatment of waste water sludge.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.641-647
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• 2007

This study aims to find out optimum condition for hydrogen production and organic removal when treating food and swine wastewater together. For this purpose, various batch tests were conducted by changing mixture ratio from 6:4 (food wastewater:swine wastewater) to 1:9 without pretreatment process. For hydrogen production through anaerobic fermentation, the mixture ratios of R-1 (6:4), R-2 (5:5) and R-6 (1:9) were out of pH range appropriate for hydrogen production and mixture ratios of R-3 (4:6), R-4 (3:7), and R-5(2:8) showed appropriate hydrogen production where their pH ranges were 5.1~5.5. Especially in case of R-3, it consistently maintained appropriate pH range for hydrogen production for 72hr and produced maximum hydrogen. The characteristics of hydrogen production and cumulative hydrogen production according to each mixture ratio showed that R-1, R-2 and R-6 did not produce any hydrogen, and maximum hydrogen productions of R-3, R-4 and R-5 were 593ml, 419ml and 90ml, respectively. Total cumulative hydrogen productions of R-3, R-4 and R-5 were 1690ml, 425ml and 96ml, respectively. Based on previous results, it was concluded that, the most appropriate mixture ratio of food wastewater and swine wastewate rwas 4:6 (R-3). The experiment for COD removal rate to evaluate organic removal efficiency revealed that R-3, R-4 and R-5 showed high removal efficiencies during the highest hydrogen production amount and the highest efficiency was 41% with R-3.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.299-306
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• 2008

This study has been conducted to derive the bio-energy, hydrogen and methane production, from mixture of food wastewater and swine wastewater, the high strength organic wastewater and to increase effluent quality. To overcome this limitation in one-phase anaerobic process, two-phase anaerobic process combining hydrogen fermenter and methane fermenter was applied. In this system $2,323ml\;H_2/L$ was produced daily from Run II where 500 ml of heattreated sludge in methane fermenter was injected, and methane produced from methane fermenter did not show big difference regardless of the amount of returning sludge at each Run. It was concluded that the two-phase anaerobic process was the appropriat process to produce hydrogen and methane simultaneously and stably. Influent $TCOD_{Cr}$ to two-phase anaerobic process showed the range of 132~145 g/L(average 140 g/L), and effluent $TCOD_{Cr}$ range was 25~40 g/L(average 32 g/L), and organic removal efficiency showed 71~82%(average 76.3%).

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.6B
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• pp.683-687
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• 2006

This research investigated the effect of aeration pretreatment for anaerobic seed sludge on hydrogen production. Aeration time for anaerobic sludge was maintained at 0, 1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 hours in batch tests. Two continuous anaerobic reactors (aerated and non-aerated) were also operated. All experiments were conducted at $35^{\circ}C$ using mineral salts-glucose (20 g/l) medium. Methane production decreased with the increase in aeration time. Aeration for 6 hours was determined as an optimum from the amount of hydrogen produced. Hydrogen was steadily produced in the continuous reactor seeded with aerated sludge while no methane production was observed. However, small amount of hydrogen was produced in the non-aerated reactor for short period of time from the start even though short HRT (2 days) and low pH (5.5) were maintained.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.123-131
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• 2007

Effect of nitrogen-load condition on hydrogen ($H_2$) production and bacterial community in a continuous anaerobic hydrogen fermentation were investigated. The slight $H_2$ production on extremely low nitrogen-load condition (C/N ratio: 180) at the start-up period. The highest $H_2$ production was obtained when the C/N ratio was 36, the $H_2$ production yield ($mol-H_2/mol-glucose$) reached to 1.7, and it was indicated that Clostridium pasteurianum mainly contributed to the $H_2$ production. The $H_2$ production was decreased on both the lower (C/N: 72) and higher (C/N: 18) nitrogen-load conditions. The excess nitrogen-load was not always suitable for the hydrogen production. The fluctuation of $H_2$ production seemed to be caused by a change in the bacterial community according to the nitrogen-load condition, while a recovery of $H_2$ productivity was possible by a control of nitrogen-load condition through the bacterial community change. When the nitrogen-load condition was not suitable for hydrogen production, the lactic acid concentration was increased and also lactic acid bacteria were definitely detected, which suggested that the competition between hydrogen fermentator and lactic acid producer was occurred. These results demonstrated that the nitrogen-load condition affect on the $H_2$ productivity through the change of bacterial community in anaerobic hydrogen fermentation.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.70-76
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• 2003

Continuous anaerobic hydrogen production with a mixed culture was investigated. With a sucrose concentration of 5g COD/L in the feed, hydrogen production exceeded $0.5mole\;H_2/mole\;hexose$ was found at the early stage, however it did not maintain longer than 9days. It was assumed that the failure was caused by insufficient active hydrogen producing bacteria in the reactor. Therefore, effects of pH control, repeated heat treatment and substrate concentration on sustainable continuous anaerobic hydrogen production was examined to find out operating conditions to sustainable hydrogen production. Decrease of hydrogen production was not overcome by only pH control at 5.3. Repeated heat treatment could recover hydrogen producing activity without any external inoculum supply. However, frequent heat treatment was needed because the treated sludge also showed the tendency in decrease of hydrogen production. With a sucrose concentration of 30g COD/L in the feed, hydrogen production maintained $1.0-1.4mole\;H_2/mole\;hexose$ in continuously stirred tank reactor and $0.2-0.3mole\;H_2/mole\;hexose$ in anaerobic sequencing batch reactor) for 24days. More than 90% of soluble organics in effluent was organic acids, in which n-butyrate was the most one.