Effect of adding brewery wastewater to pulp and paper mill effluent to enhance the photofermentation process: wastewater characteristics, biohydrogen production, overall performance, and kinetic modeling

Abstract

Although a significant amount of brewery wastewater (BW) is generated during beer production, the nutrients in the BW could be reused as a potential bio-resource for biohydrogen production. Therefore, improvements in photofermentative biohydrogen production due to a combination of BW and pulp and paper mill effluent (PPME) as a mixed production medium were investigated comprehensively in this study. The experimental results showed that both the biohydrogen yield and the chemical oxygen demand removal were improved through the combination of BW and PPME. The best biohydrogen yield of 0.69 mol H/L medium was obtained using the combination of 10 % BW + 90 % PPME (10B90P), while the reuse of the wastewater alone (100 % BW and 100 % PPME) resulted in 42.3 and 44.0 % less biohydrogen yields than the highest yield, respectively. The greatest light efficiency was 1.97 % and was also achieved using the combination of both wastewaters at 10B90P. This study revealed the potential of reusing and combining two different effluents together, in which the combination of BW and PPME improved the nutrients and light penetration into the mixed production medium.

Photo-hydrogen and lipid production from lactate, acetate, butyrate, and sugar manufacturing wastewater with an alternative nitrogen source byRhodobactersp.KKU-PS1

“…001, and Rhodopseudomonas palustris WP3-5 have the capacity to convert hydrogen from a single organic acid (Assawamongkholsiri, Plangklang & Reungsang, 2016; Assawamongkholsiri & Reungsang, 2015; Laocharoen & Reungsang, 2014) and mixed volatile fatty acids (VFAs), which are the major substrates in dark fermentation effluents (Lo et al, 2011; Uyar et al, 2009; Yang et al, 2012). Moreover, a variety of wastewaters such as brewery wastewater (Hay et al, 2017; Seifert, Waligorska & Laniecki, 2010a), dairy wastewater (Seifert, Waligorska & Laniecki, 2010b), sugar industry wastes (Assawamongkholsiri et al, 2018; Keskin & Hallenbeck, 2012) and effluent from dark fermentation processes (Argun, Kargi & Kapdan, 2008; Ozmihci & Kargi, 2010; Sagnak & Kargi, 2011) can be used by PNSB. The limitations of photofermentation are its low hydrogen production rate and high raw material costs (Levin, Pitt & Love, 2004).…”

A review on bio-hydrogen production technology

“…The research results indicated that raw materials with a similar chemical composition may have a different technical suitability for hydrogen production . The preparation of hydrogen from waste paper, waste walnut pulp, leaves, brewery waste‐water, and other wastes has attracted much attention of researchers . Evaluation results of bio‐hydrogen production showed that more than 50% of the contribution belongs to cereal crops including wheat, barley, rice and corn in Iran .…”

Food Waste Biorefinery: Pathway towards Circular Bioeconomy

“…The production cost of 1 kg of hydrogen by photofermentation was estimated to be about EUR 2.83, while electrolysis-based technology costs from EUR 4–24 [ 60 ]. The presence of inhibitory compounds in the waste, lower light penetrations due to the turbidity of the waste, and the rate of cell wash out exceeding the specific growth rates are some of the major challenges hindering the production of biohydrogen by photofermentation [ 61 , 62 ]. The immobilization of microbial cells is an effective approach to overcome the over washing, while other drawbacks need to be resolved [ 63 ].…”