The microalgae Scenedesmus sp. is a potential source for biohydrogen production | ||
| Arab Journal of Biotechnology | ||
| Volume 19, Issue 2, December 2016, Pages 107-122 PDF (2.96 M) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/arjb.2016.428493 | ||
| Abstract | ||
| Biohydrogen production is among the most promising solutions to energy scarcity as a renewable source to replace fossil fuel. Most of hydrogen nowadays is produced by chemical means. Biohydrogen could be produced from vast arrays of substrates. In this study, the biohydrogen was produced from the Scenedesmus sp. microalgae by dark fermentation. The algal cultures were pretreated before digestion with the seeding material to investigate the best performance for hydrogen production. The seeding material was sludge from wastewater treatment plant. The pretreatments included microwave digestion, ultrasonic, hydrochloric acid pretreatment and a combination between acid pretreatment and microwave digestion. For the control, experiments without pretreatment were performed. Pretreated and not pretreated Scenedesmus sp. cultures were digested in batch experiment under mesophilic conditions with different pH-values to produce hydrogen. The quality and quantity of gas were monitored during the experiment by eudiometer for measuring the quantity of gas produced and infrared gas analyzer to know the composition of produced gas. The quantity and quality of gas volume produced differed between the various pretreatments. The highest H2 concentration produced at pH 5.0 glucose fermentation of ca. 130 mlN was attributed to ultrasonic pretreatment while the lowest (< 97 mlN) was recorded by microwave and hydrochloric acid digestion. At pH 6.0 fermentation by the algal strain, the highest H2 yield of ca. 118 mlN was produced by microwave digestion at 70 °C for 15 min. The effect of Scenedesmus sp. pretreatments on organic acid yields as well as diluted organic carbon (DOC) and total nitrogen bound (TNb) as indirect measures for biohydrogen production was discussed | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Scenedesmus sp; Pretreatments; Biohydrogen; Renewable energy; Dark fermentation | ||
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