Impact of dilute sulfuric acid pre-treatment on the efficiency of dark hydrogen fermentation from bagasse

Abstract In this study, the effect of dilute sulfuric acid pre-treatment (2% v/v) on the efficiency of dark hydrogen fermentation from sugarcane bagasse was investigated. Heat-shock pre-treated mixed culture was used as inoculum under mesophilic conditions. The dilute sulfuric acid pretreatments were done at 121 °C for different durations of 30, 60, 90 and 120 min. As the pretreatment duration was increased from 30 min to 90 min, the hydrogen yield reached to its maximum (80.5 mL/g-VS) and with further increase in the duration of the pre-treatment, the hydrogen yield was decreased. Moreover, the maximum VS/TS ratio, the maximum hydrogen production rate, and the minimum lag phase time of 95.98%, 5.5 mL/g-VS.h, and 23.9 h, respectively, were obtained from this pre-treatment. Keywords: Bio-hydrogen, bagasse, pre-treatment, sulfuric acid.

Keywords:

Bio-hydrogen , bagasse , pre-treatment , sulfuric acid