• 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 $55^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.765-771
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• 2011

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of heat treatment on the start-up performance for anaerobic hydrogen fermentation of food waste. The result showed that hydrogen production was $0.61{\pm}0.31$ mol $H_2$/mol hexose with heat-treatment of food waste at $70^{\circ}C$ for 60 min whereas it was $0.36{\pm}0.31$ mol $H_2$/mol hexose without heat-treatment of one. The heat treatment of food waste enhanced hydrogen yield due probably to the increase of hydrolysis as well as the decrease of non-hydrogen fermentation microorganisms. The removal efficiency of carbohydrate in reactors regardless of heat treatment of food waste maintained over 90%. The hydrogen conversion efficiency from food waste was 1.7-6.3% with heat-treatment whereas it was 0.7-4.5% without heat-treatment. At the time of switchover from batch to continuous operation, lactate concentration was high compared to the n-butyrate concentration in anaerobic hydrogen fermentation reactor without heat-treatment. Anaerobic hydrogen fermentation of food waste with heat treatment was stable in start-up periods because lactate concentration could be maintained at a relatively low compared to n-butyrate concentration due to the decrease of non-hydrogen fermentation microorganisms.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.387-393
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to evaluate integrated anaerobic hydrogen fermentation and membrane bioreactor (MBR) for on-site domestic wastewater treatment and resource recovery. A synthetic wastewater (COD 17,000 mg/L) was used as artificial brown water which will be discharged from urine diversion toilet and fed into a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) type anaerobic reactor with inclined plate. The effluent of anaerobic reactor mixed with real household grey water (COD 700 mg/L) was further treated by MBR for reuse. An optimum condition maintained in anaerobic reactor was HRT of 8 hrs, pH 5.5, SRT of 5 days and temperature of $37^{\circ}C$. COD removal of 98% was achieved from the overall system. Total gas production rate and hydrogen content was 4.6 L/day and 52.4% respectively. COD mass balance described the COD distribution in the system via reactor byproducts and effluent COD concentration. The results of this study asserts that, anaerobic hydrogen fermentation combined with MBR is a potent system in stabilizing waste strength and clean hydrogen recovery which could be implemented for onsite domestic wastewater treatment and reuse.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.97-105
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• 2007

This study was conducted to compare the performances of acidogenic fermentation and hydrogen fermentation using bench-scale leaching-bed reactors for organic solid waste. Acidogenic fermenters were operated with dilution rates (D) of 2.0, 3.0 and $4.0d^{-1}$ after employing anaerobic sludge and hydrogen fermenters were operated with D of 2.0, 4.0 and $6.0d^{-1}$ after employing heat-treated anaerobic sludge. The highest chemical oxygen demand (COD) conversion efficiency (56.2%) was obtained in acidogenic fermentation with D of $3.0d^{-1}$. Only volatile fatty acid (VFA) was produced as a metabolite. On the other hand, hydrogen fermentation did not show higher COD conversion efficiency (49.3%) than acidogenic fermentation, but it produced hydrogen gas (5.1% of total COD) which was a clean and environmentally friendly fuel with a high energy yield. Therefore, either acidogenic fermentation or hydrogen fermentation could be applied to organic solid waste depending on the purpose of treatment, which could maximize the economics of anaerobic treatment.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.10-16
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• 2013

Characteristics of biological hydrogen production rate and organic acid under anaerobic fermentation process were investigated with sugar wastewater. Hydrogen production rate was higher with alkaline pre-treatment than acidic pre-treatment, resulting in 70% increment. An adequate supply of the nutrients (N or P) into raw sugar wastewater could increase hydrogen production rate. Carbohydrate degradation of the anaerobic fermentation process was not directly related with hydrogen production. Sugar wastewater with the addition of the nutrients shows 3 times higher B/A ratio than the raw sugar wastewater. B/A ratio of the wastewater with alkaline pre-treatment and nutrients addition was most higher than other samples, showing 4.02 of B/A ratio. Higher B/A ratio shows higher hydrogen production rate at each sample.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.83-88
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• 2012

The algal bloom, resulting from eutrophication, has caused serious water quality problems in river and lake. Therefore, it has to be removed by any means including physicochemical or biological treatment for preserving water quality. This study was conducted to investigate the microalgae removal and energy production using combined electro-flotation and anaerobic hydrogen fermentation processes. The result showed that algae removal efficiency based on chlorophyll a removal increased with the current. At a current of 0.6A, the maximum microalgae removal efficiency of 95.9% was achieved. The treatability of anaerobic hydrogen fermentation was investigated to recover energy from microalgae removed by electro-flotation. The ultimate hydrogen yields of algae before and after ultrasonic pretreatment were 17.3 and 61.1 ml $H_2/g$ dcw(dry cell weight), respectively. The ultrasonic pretreatment of algae led to 3.4-fold higher $H_2$ production due to the increase of hydrolysis rate.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.275-281
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• 2013

This study was conducted to increase the amount of bio-hydrogen production from microalgae(Chlorella vulgaris) in batch reactors by thermal pre-treatment. The optimization of thermal pre-treatment was conducted using statistic experimental design of response surface methodology. Two experimental parameters of temperature and reaction time were considered. The optimization condition was founded at the coded variables of <0.52, -0.07> corresponding to the experimental of heating temperature of $95.6^{\circ}C$ and reaction time of 57.9 min, respectively. Under the optimal condition, the maximum hydrogen production was predicted to 25.3mL $H_2/g$ dry cell weight (dcw), which was 9.1 times higher value of control(2.8mL $H_2/g$ dcw).