Photofermentative production of hydrogen and poly-β-hydroxybutyrate from dark fermentation products

Vincenzo Luongo; Anish Ghimire; Luigi Frunzo; Massimiliano Fabbricino; Giuseppe d'Antonio; Francesco Pirozzi; Giovanni Esposito

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2016.12.079

Photofermentative production of hydrogen and poly-β-hydroxybutyrate from dark fermentation products

Bioresour Technol. 2017 Mar:228:171-175. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.12.079. Epub 2016 Dec 24.

Authors

Vincenzo Luongo¹, Anish Ghimire², Luigi Frunzo³, Massimiliano Fabbricino⁴, Giuseppe d'Antonio⁴, Francesco Pirozzi⁴, Giovanni Esposito⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, via Claudio 21, 80125 Naples, Italy; Department of Mathematics and Applications Renato Caccioppoli, University of Naples Federico II, via Cintia, Monte S. Angelo, 80124 Naples, Italy. Electronic address: vincenzo.luongo@unina.it.
² Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Kathmandu University, P.O.Box 6250, Dhulikhel, Nepal.
³ Department of Mathematics and Applications Renato Caccioppoli, University of Naples Federico II, via Cintia, Monte S. Angelo, 80124 Naples, Italy.
⁴ Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, via Claudio 21, 80125 Naples, Italy.
⁵ Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, via Di Biasio 43, 03043 Cassino (FR), Italy.

PMID: 28063359
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.12.079

Abstract

The aim of this work is to investigate the hydrogen and poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) production during the photofermentative treatment of the effluent from a dark fermentation reactor fed with the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. Two different inocula, an adapted culture of Rhodobacter sphaeroides AV1b and a mixed consortium of purple non sulphur bacteria have been investigated under the same operational conditions. Different hydrogen productivities of 364 and 559NmL H₂ L^-1 were observed for the Rhodobacter sphaeroides and the mixed culture consortium tests, respectively: the consortium of PNSB resulted 1.5-fold more productive than the pure culture. On the other hand, Rhodobacter sphaeroides culture showed a higher PHB productivity (155mg PHB g COD^-1) than the mixed culture (55mg PHB g COD^-1). In all the tests, the concomitant H₂ and PHB production was associated to a dissolved COD removal higher than 80%.

Keywords: Biohydrogen; Biorefinery; Dark fermentation; Photofermentation; Poly-β-hydroxybutyrate.

MeSH terms

Bioreactors / microbiology*
Fermentation
Hydrogen / chemistry*
Hydrogen / metabolism
Hydroxybutyrates / chemistry*
Hydroxybutyrates / metabolism
Polyesters / chemistry*
Polyesters / metabolism
Refuse Disposal / methods*
Rhodobacter sphaeroides / metabolism*
Solid Waste

Substances

Hydroxybutyrates
Polyesters
Solid Waste
poly-beta-hydroxybutyrate
Hydrogen