Biohydrogen Production From Beverage Wastewater Using Selectively Enriched Mixed Culture

In order to select the efficient hydrogen-producers for beverage wastewater (BW), initially sucrose was chosen as a sole carbon source to enrich efficient hydrogen-producers from two different compost seeds. The enriched mixed culture (EMC) obtained from the compost of food waste (C1) provided a hydrogen yield (HY) and hydrogen production rate (HPR) of 3.76 mol/mol sucrose and 1.15 L/L-d, respectively. The EMC (C1) was further used for optimization of pH, temperature and substrate concentration from BW and showed the optimal conditions of pH 5.5, temperature 37 °C and a substrate concentration of 20 g/L, respectively. Under these conditions, the optimal HPR and HY were observed as 2.16 L/L-d and 1.30 mol/mol hexose utilized . Ratkowsky kinetic model analysis provided the optimal temperature value of 38.5 °C. While, Monod model was used to predict the substrate concentration effects and it showed the Rm and Ks values as 3.57 L/L-d and 8.29 g/L, respectively.