How to manage potato peel waste sustainably has been an issue faced by the potato industry. This work explored the feasibility of potato peel waste for biohydrogen production via dark fermentation, and investigated the effects of various inoculum enrichment methods (acid, aeration, heat-shock and base) on the process efficiency. It was observed that the hydrogen production showed a great variation when using various inoculum enrichment methods, and the aeration enriched inoculum obtained the maximum hydrogen yield of 71.0 mL/g-VSadded and VS removal of 28.9 %. Different enriched cultures also exhibited huge variations in the bacterial community structure and metabolic pathway. The highest abundance of Clostridium sensu stricto fundamentally contributed to the highest process efficiency for the fermenter inoculated with aeration treated culture. This work puts forward a promising strategy for recycling potato peel waste, and fills a gap in the optimal inoculum preparation method for biohydrogen fermentation of potato peel waste.
Keywords: Biohydrogen; Dark fermentation; Metabolic pathway; Microbial community; Potato peel waste.
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