• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.89-95
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• 1998

Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides K7 and E15-1 produced hydrogen from glucose rapidly for the first 24 hrs of culture under the anaerobic and photosynthetic conditions and then ceased the hydrogen production because of the accumulation of organic acids such as acetic acid and formic acid in the culture broth, decreasing the pH to 4.2-4.5. Only 43% and 73% of glucose in the culture were consumed even after 6 days of incubation by R. sphaeroides K7 and E15-1, respectively. The hydrogen production and glucose consumption, however, were substantially increased when the pH of the culture was adjusted to 6.8-7.0: Hydrogen production continues even after 10 days of culture and glucose was consumed completely after 2.5 and 4.5 days by R. sphaeroides K7 and E15-1, respectively, Furthermore, the bacteriochlorophyll contents in R. sphaeroides K7 and E15-1 were increased by 44 and 9 folds and the cell concentrations by 10 and 2.5 folds, respectively, after 7 days of culture. R. sphaeroides K7 and E15-1 also produced hydrogen from acetic, lactic, butyric and malic acids under the anaerobic and photosynthetic conditions even though the amounts of hydrogen produced were lower than that from glucose. The results of this experiment indicate that under the anaerobic and synthetic conditions R. sphaeroides K7 and E15-1 might use the NADH oxidation mediated by ferredoxin and hydrogenase to evolve hydrogen from glucose for the first 24 hrs and then the organic acids produced were used as electron donners for the production of hydrogen in the nitrogen-limited condition.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.343-348
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• 2011

Since 2005, food waste has been separately collected and recycled to animal feed or aerobic compost in South Korea. However, the conventional recycling methods discharge process wastewater, which contain pollutant equivalent to more than 50% of food waste. Therefore, anaerobic digestion is considered as an alternative recycling method of food waste to reduce pollutant and recover renewable energy. Recent studies showed that hydrogen can be produced at acidogenic stage in two-stage anaerobic digestion. In this study, the authors investigated the effects of pretreatment time and pH low set value on continuous mesophilic hydrogen fermentation of food waste. Food waste was successfully converted to $H_2$ when heat-treated at $70^{\circ}C$ for 60 min, which was milder than previous studies using pH 12 for 1 day or $90^{\circ}C$. Organic acid production dropped operational pH below 5.0 and caused a metabolic shift from $H_2/butyrate$ fermentation to lactate fermentation. Therefore, alkaline addition for operational pH at or over 5.0 was necessary. At pH 5.3, the result showed that the maximum hydrogen productivity and yield of 1.32 $m^3/m^3$.d and 0.71 mol/mol $carbohydrate_{added}$. Hydrogen production from food waste would be an effective technology for resource recovery as well as waste treatment.

• Advances in Energy Research
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2014

The green microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtti is well-known specie in the terms of $H_2$ production by photo fermentation and has been studying for a long time. Although the $H_2$ production yield is promising; there are some bottlenecks to enhance the yield and efficiency to focus on a well-designed, sustainable production and also scaling up for further studies. D1 protein of photosystem II (PSII) plays an important role in photosystem damage repair and related to $H_2$ production. Because Chlamydomonas is the model algae and the genetic basis is well-studied; metabolic engineering tools are intended to use for enhanced production. Mutations are focused on D1 protein which aims long-lasting hydrogen production by blocking the PSII repair system thus $O_2$ sensitive hydrogenases catalysis hydrogen production for a longer period of time under anaerobic and sulfur deprived conditions. Chlamydomonas CC124 as control strain and D1 mutant strains(D240, D239-40 and D240-41)are cultured photomixotrophically at $80{\mu}mol\;photons\;m^{-2}s^{-1}$, by two sides. Cells are grown in TAP medium as aerobic stage for culture growth; in logarithmic phase cells are transferred from aerobic to an anaerobic and sulfur deprived TAP- S medium and 12 mg/L initial chlorophyll content for $H_2$ production which is monitored by the water columns and later detected by Gas Chromatography. Total produced hydrogen was $82{\pm}10$, $180{\pm}20$, $196{\pm}20$, $290{\pm}30mL$ for CC124, D240, D239-40, D240-41, respectively. $H_2$ production rates for mutant strains was $1.3{\pm}0.5mL/L.h$ meanwhile CC124 showed 2-3 fold lower rate as $0.57{\pm}0.2mL/L.h$. Hydrogen production period was $5{\pm}2days$ for CC124 and mutants showed a longer production time for $9{\pm}2days$. It is seen from the results that $H_2$ productions for mutant strains have a significant effect in terms of productivity, yield and production time.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.73-78
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• 2011

The pH is one of the most important factors affecting metabolism pathway and activity of hydrogen producing bacteria. The effect of operational pH on anaerobic hydrogen fermentation of food waste was evaluated at mesophilic condition. In this batch experiment, the initial pH was 8.0 and the operational pH was controlled at 4.7~7.0 by the addition of 5N KOH solutions. At the operational pH of 4.7, the lag phase and the maximum hydrogen production were 47.9h and 534.4 mL, respectively. The lag phase and the maximum hydrogen production were decreased as the operational pH increased. At the operational pH of 7.0, the lag phase and the maximum hydrogen production were 4.2 h and 213.8 mL, respectively.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.199-204
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• 2008

Culture conditions for biological hydrogen production were investigated in wastewater of Takju manufacturing factory. Rhodobacter spaeroides KCTC1425, photosynthesis bacteria, and Enterobacter cloacae YJ-1, anaerobic bacteria were used. The hydrogen production were $195.3m{\ell}{\cdot}H_2/{\ell}$ broth for Rhodobacter spaeroides KCTC1425 and $271.8m{\ell}{\cdot}H_2/{\ell}$ broth for Enterobacter cloacae YJ-1 during 36 h. The hydrogen production increased with light intensity, and were highest over 12000Lux. In mixed culture of Rhodobacter spaeroides KCTC1425 and Enterobacter cloacae Y J-1, the optimum mixing ratio of hydrogen production was 20 and 80. Adding volume of yeast extract for maximum hydrogen production was 15 $g/{\ell}$, but there was no effect over that. $Na_2MoO_4$ was most effective among the inorganic salts, and the optimum volume was 0.4 $g/{\ell}$. In semi-continuous culture, total hydrogen production was $13086m{\ell}{\cdot}H_2/{\ell}$ broth for 144 h with operating period of 24 h.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2008

Fermentative $H_2$ production was studied using microbial consortia isolated from heat-treated ($90{\circ}C$, 20 min) sewage sludge. Important parameters investigated were carbon(C) and nitrogen(N)-sources, C/N ratio, phosphate concentration, pH and temperature during anaerobic cultivation in serum bottles. Starch, ribose, sucrose and glucose were good C-sources for the culture growth and $H_2$ production. Yeast extract was better N-source than $(NH_4)_2SO_4$ or peptone when individually added to the synthetic media, however the combination of above three N-sources exhibited the additional effect for cell growth and $H_2$ evolution. Addition of 100 mM phosphate as a buffering agent prevented the rapid pH drop during the cultivation. The optimum initial pH for the cell growth was at 7.0, whereas $H_2$ production was observed at pH 5.5. Optimum temperature for the cell growth and $H_2$ production was $37{\circ}C$. Initial C/N ratio of 1.22 in the media using glucose and yeast extract as the C- and N-sources, respectively, showed the $H_2$ yield 1.0 mol $H_2$/mol glucose.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.28 no.9
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• pp.911-916
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• 2006

The influence of substrate concentration and hydraulic retention time(HRT) on the hydrogen production by anaerobic microflora was investigated by conducting three series of continuous experiments the individual influences of substrate concentration and HRT. In series I, substrate concentration was increased from 3 to 27 g-glucose/L keeping HRT at 8 hr. Series II and III carried out same condition with series I at HRT of 16 hr and 24 hr, respectively. The effects of HRT and substrate concentration on the hydrogen production yield were analyzed by quadratic model. The maximum hydrogen production yield of 2.05 mol $H_2/mol$ glucose was found at the HRT of 9.6 hr and the substrate concentration of 15.4 g/L. The relationship between HRT and substrate concentration on hydrogen production yield as displayed a saddle shape in the response surface plot. Optimum HRT and substrate concentration are observed at in the range of 5 and 14 hr, at between 13 and 17 g/L, respectively, for the hydrogen production yield being 2 mol $H_2/mol$ glucose. The concentrations of organic acids increased with the increase of the amount of glucose consumption. Acetic acid and butyric acid were the main by-products from the glucose degradation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1239-1244
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• 2008

In this study, PCR-DGGE was conducted to investigate the variations of microbial community according to pH conditions from pH 3 to pH 10 during anaerobic fermentation process of hydrogen production. Maximum hydrogen yield was 1.8 mol $H_2$/mol substrate at pH 5. The microbial growth rate was not proportional to the hydrogen production rate at each pH. Variations of microbial community was observed at each condition from PCR-DGGE experiment of 16s rDNA. Klebsiella was main species of the microbial community. Streptococcus and Clostridium were mainly contributed for hydrogen production.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.506-510
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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.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.337-343
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• 2014

This study was conducted to evaluate the characteristics of dark fermentative $H_2$ production from microalgae (Chlorella vulgaris) using batch reactors under mesophilic (25, $35^{\circ}C$) and thermophilic (45, $55^{\circ}C$) conditions. The $H_2$ yield and $H_2$ production rate increased with increasing temperature. The maximum $H_2$ yield and $H_2$ production rate were 56.77 mL $H_2/g$ dcw, 3.33 mL $H_2/g\;dcw{\cdot}h$ at $55^{\circ}C$, respectively. The activation energy calculated using Arrhenius equation was 36.24 kcal/mol, which was higher than that of dark $H_2$ fermentation of glucose by anaerobic mixed culture. Although the concentration of butyrate was maintained, the concentrations of lactate and acetate increased with increasing temperature. The $H_2$ yield was linearly proportional to acetate/ butyrate ratio.