Hydrogen production from cassava processing wastewater in an anaerobic fixed bed reactor with bamboo as a support material

Abstract

Attempting to associate waste treatment to the production of clean and renewable energy, this research sought to evaluate the biological production of hydrogen using wastewater from the cassava starch treatment industry, generated during the processes of extraction and purification of starch. This experiment was carried out in a continuous anaerobic reactor with a working volume of 3L, with bamboo stems as the support medium. The system was operated at a temperature of 36°C, an initial pH of 6.0 and under variations of organic load. The highest rate of hydrogen production, of 1.1 L.d-1.L-1, was obtained with application of an organic loading rate of 35 g.L-1.d-1, in terms of total sugar content and hydraulic retention time of 3h, with a prevalence of butyric and acetic acids as final products of the fermentation process. Low C/N ratios contributed to the excessive growth of the biomass, causing a reduction of up to 35% in hydrogen production, low percentages of H2 and high concentrations of CO2in the biogas.

BIOHYDROGEN PRODUCTION IN AnSBBR IN FED-BATCH FROM STARCH EFFLUENT: INFLUENCE OF ORGANIC LOAD

“…In general, the observed distribution of intermediate products was consistent with other studies (Antonopoulou et al, 2011). Andreani et al (2015) evaluated the production of hydrogen in a continuous anaerobic fixed bed reactor operating with cassava starch wastewater. The authors observed that, under the condition that the highest hydrogen production (1.1 L d -1 L -1 ) was obtained, the butyric and acetic acids were the predominant metabolites in the fermentation process.…”

“…Among the conditions studied, the one with the highest values of hydrogen yield was the condition II, which was conducted with cycle time of 4 h and organic loading rate of 13.5 gL -1 d -1 . Rosa et al (2014) and Andreani et al (2015), who worked with synthetic substrate, cheese whey and cassava starch effluent, respectively, in order to produce biohydrogen in different configurations and reactor types, present lower yield results than those achieved in this study, under conditions I and II.…”

Cassava Wastewater Treatment in Fixed-Bed Reactors: Organic Matter Removal and Biogas Production

“…Bamboo is a perennial herb, composed mainly of fibers (Feng et al, 2008) and widely distributed in several regions of the world, as Asia (Peng and She, 2014) and America. Andreani et al (2015) and Torres et al (2017) evaluated bamboo as a support material in upflow acidogenic anaerobic reactors, destined to biohydrogen production from cassava starch wastewater. The aforementioned authors obtained satisfactory results in the reactor with bamboo support when compared to reactors with low density polyethylene support.…”

Hydrogen Production and Performance of Anaerobic Fixed-Bed Reactors Using Three Support Arrangements From Cassava Starch Wastewater

“…In reactors, bamboo has been applied in the immobilization of microorganisms for different uses as biogas production and organic matter removal (KUNZLER et al, 2013;WENPING et al, 2012); quinoline biodegradation (ZHUANG et al, 2015), nitrate removal (LIU et al, 2012) and biohydrogen production (ANDREANI et al, 2015).Among the advantages of these reactors are the availability, low cost, higher superficial area, adsorption capacity and physical-chemical stability (LIN et. al., 2010).…”