Continuous hydrogen production by dark fermentation in a foam SiC ceramic packed up‐flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor

Abstract

Biohydrogen generation using anaerobic sludge from a sewage treatment plant is a promising strategy for converting waste into renewable energy. The porous foam SiC ceramic structured packing was used as a support in the up‐flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor to enhance the biohydrogen yield. Using glucose as the major carbon source, the SiC‐UASB reactor was continuously operated under the organic loading rates (OLR) between 30 and 90 gglucose/L · d at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 4 h. The maximum hydrogen production rate (5.24 L/L · d) and hydrogen content (50 %) were obtained at 60 gglucose/L · d OLR. It demonstrated that the reaction of fermentation was predominated by the butyric acid pathway. The employment of SiC packings resulted in quick startup (∼5 days) and high efficiency of hydrogen production. The buffering capacity and the cell culture immobilization ability of the UASB reactor were obviously improved by the application of SiC packings, which increased the feasibility of scale‐up of the continuous biohydrogen production system.

Silicon carbide (SiC) membranes in œnology: a laboratory-scale study

“…As a result of these characteristics, SiC has become, since the 2010s, a material of choice for the manufacture of mineral membranes used in the filtration of loaded liquids (Zoubeik and Henni, 2016;Fraga et al, 2017;Sui et al, 2017;Luo et al, 2018). Indeed, these membranes are already commonly used in water purification (Zsirai et al, 2016) and wastewater treatment (Bakshi et al, 2015;He and Vidic, 2016;Kuhn et al, 2016).…”