Studies on Crude Glycerol Degradation and Hydrogen Production by Photofermentation
S K Priya, P. Brijesh · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2021
Hydrogen is considered as an efficient green energy carrier that can be produced in an by biological methods. Photofermentation is one of the biological methods that is said to be effective for biohydrogen production. The bacteria used in the process are facultative anaerobes that are also capable of utilizing waste organic effluents from various process industries as carbon substrates. The current study was based on use of crude glycerol, obtained as a byproduct from biodiesel plant, as carbon substrate for the photofermentative bacteria, Rhodobacter meghalophilus, for hydrogen production. The inoculum size and the light intensity was varied to study their impact on the bacterial growth and hydrogen production process. The inoculum size was varied at 1 ml/L, 2 ml/L and 4 ml/L of the fermentation medium and LED lights of 5W, 10W and 15W was used to supply light source needed for photofermentation. Increasing the inoculum size was found to aid in better degradation of crude glycerol but 2ml/L of inoculum size was found to be effective for hydrogen production. Use of LED light source showed that 10W was sufficient for photofermentation as light intensity at 15W was found to inhibit the bacterial growth and did not help in to increase hydrogen production. Thus, highest yield of hydrogen gas was obtained with 2 ml/L of inoculum size and light capacity of 10W. These results showed that inoculum size and light source are among the crucial parameters governing hydrogen production by photofermentation.