Bio-hydrogen-producing Potential Evaluation and Capacity Enhancement from Tobacco Processing Leftovers by Photo-fermentation Under Diverse Initial pH.

The use of tobacco growing and processing residues for bio-hydrogen production is an effective exploration to broaden the source of bio-hydrogen production raw materials and realize waste recycling. In this study, bio-hydrogen-producing potential was evaluated and the effect of diverse initial pH on hydrogen production performance was investigated. The cumulative hydrogen yield (CHY) and the properties of fermentation liquid were monitored. The modified Gompertz model was adopted to analyze the kinetic characteristics of photo-fermentation bio-hydrogen production process. Results showed that CHY increased firstly and then decreased with the increase of initial pH. Highest CHY and hydrogen production rate of appeared at the initial pH of 8, which were 257.7 mL and 6.15 mL/h, respectively. The acidic initial pH was found to severely limit the bio-hydrogen production capacity. The correlation coefficients (R2) of hydrogen production kinetics parameters were all greater than 0.99, meaning that the fitting effect was good. The main metabolites of bacteria in the system were acetic acid, butyric acid, and ethanol, and the consumption of acetic acid was promoted with the increase of initial pH.

Clean Style Recovery and Utilization of Residual Nutrients in Effluents From Biohydrogen Production: In Situ Immobilization Based on Sodium Alginate.

Clean- and high-value recovery and reuse of the residue of biohydrogen production (biohydrogen slurry) is an urgent problem to be solved. In this study, sodium alginate (SA) gel was used to concentrate nutrients quickly in situ from biohydrogen slurry, which was prepared into gel microspheres (GMs), just like "capsule." The immobilization and release efficiency of conventional and reverse spherification were investigated. Better immobilization and release efficiency were detected under the conventional spherification method. The effect of GM sizes and concentrations of SA and calcium chloride (CaCl2) was further studied in terms of sphericity factor, nutrient release, yield, encapsulation efficiency, and loading capacity. The best immobilization effect was obtained with a 1.6-mm syringe needle, 3.0 wt% SA, and 6 wt% CaCl2, in which the sphericity factor, nitrogen release, yield, nitrogen encapsulation efficiency, and nitrogen loading capacity reached to 0.047, 96.20, 77.68, 38.37, and 0.0476%, respectively. This process not only avoids environmental pollution from biohydrogen slurry but also uses them at a high value as a fertilizer to nourish the soil. The feasibility of "slurry capsule" preparation will realize the clean recovery and reuse of biohydrogen slurry, which provides a new idea for ecological protection and carbon neutral goals and has important significance for sustainable development.

Surfactant assisted microwave irradiation pretreatment of corncob: Effect on hydrogen production capacity, energy consumption and physiochemical structure.

The combination pretreatment strategy is an effective way to intensify photo-fermentative biohydrogen production (PFHP) process. In this study, the synergistic effects of microwave irradiation and surfactants on the hydrogen production performance, energy analysis and structural characteristics was evaluated. Results revealed that hydrogen production performance was improved after microwave irradiation pretreatment (MIP) and surfactants assisted microwave irradiation pretreatment (SMIP). SMIP group had a higher cumulative hydrogen yield (CHY) of 367.87 ± 6.481 mL compared with control group (223.26 ± 4.329 mL) and MIP group (303.66 ± 3.366 mL), which was an increase of 36.01% and 64.77%, respectively. Energy evaluation analysis showed that the energy ratio of SMIP (0.49) was higher than that of MIP (0.37) in the PFHP system, therefore, SMIP can save more energy. After SMIP, the corncob lignocellulose structure was greatly damaged, which was verified by SEM, FTIR, XRD and XPS analyses.

Pretreatment of corn stover by torrefaction for improving reducing sugar and biohydrogen production.

The torrefaction pretreatment technology with different temperature varying from 160℃ to 240℃ was utilized to enhance the enzymatic saccharification and hydrogen production potential of corn stover. The composition characteristics, Crystal Intensity (CrI), reducing sugars yield and hydrogen production of the pretreated corn stover were detected to explore the torrefaction pretreatment effectiveness. Results revealed that the reducing sugar yield and hydrogen production from corn stover were improved significantly through torrefaction pretreatment, both the maximum reducing sugar yield of 427.86 ± 19 mg/g Total solid(TS) and hydrogen yield of 123.72 mL/g TS were obtained at 200 ℃, increased by 46.41% and 70.79%, respectively. The kinetic parameters from Gompertz model showed torrefaction pretreatment could shorten the lag phase time of enzymatic saccharification and hydrogen production. The reducing sugar data can be fitted well by fractal-like kinetic model and Gompertz model.

Photo-fermentative biohydrogen production from corncob treated by microwave irradiation.

The complex structure of corncob is the bottleneck that restricts its efficient biohydrogen production. Hence, effective treatment is an important exploration to break this limitation. The effect of microwave irradiation (MI) on photo-fermentative biohydrogen production (PFHP) process was evaluated in this paper. Diverse conditions (irradiation time, microwave power, and surfactant addition) were applied. Comparisons of cumulative hydrogen yield (CHY), microstructure, liquid products, and substrate conversion efficiency (Sconv) were conducted. Results showed that the highest CHY of 27.34 ± 1.13 mL/g TS was achieved when the corncob was treated by MI assisted with surfactant addition. Optimal treatment conditions (5.51 min irradiation time, 772.03 W microwave power, and 0.08 g/L rhamnolipids addition) were obtained. MI assisted with surfactant addition helped with the structure destroys and content degradation, displaying a great improves on PFHP. Lower ethanol content and higher butyric acid content were obtained. An 80.94% increase in CHY and Sconv of 90.44% were obtained than untreated corncob.