Articles | Volume 12, issue 21
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-6503-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-12-6503-2015
Research article
 | 
13 Nov 2015
Research article |  | 13 Nov 2015

Optimizing the impact of temperature on bio-hydrogen production from food waste and its derivatives under no pH control using statistical modelling

C. Arslan, A. Sattar, C. Ji, S. Sattar, K. Yousaf, and S. Hashim

Abstract. The effect of temperature on bio-hydrogen production by co-digestion of sewerage sludge with food waste and its two derivatives, i.e. noodle waste and rice waste, was investigated by statistical modelling. Experimental results showed that increasing temperature from mesophilic (37 °C) to thermophilic (55 °C) was an effective mean for increasing bio-hydrogen production from food waste and noodle waste, but it caused a negative impact on bio-hydrogen production from rice waste. The maximum cumulative bio-hydrogen production of 650 mL was obtained from noodle waste under thermophilic temperature condition. Most of the production was observed during the first 48 h of incubation, which continued until 72 h of incubation. The decline in pH during this interval was 4.3 and 4.4 from a starting value of 7 under mesophilic and thermophilic conditions, respectively. Most of the glucose consumption was also observed during 72 h of incubation and the maximum consumption was observed during the first 24 h, which was the same duration where the maximum pH drop occurred. The maximum hydrogen yields of 82.47 mL VS−1, 131.38 mL COD−1, and 44.90 mL glucose−1 were obtained from thermophilic food waste, thermophilic noodle waste and mesophilic rice waste, respectively. The production of volatile fatty acids increased with an increase in time and temperature in food waste and noodle waste reactors whereas they decreased with temperature in rice waste reactors. The statistical modelling returned good results with high values of coefficient of determination (R2) for each waste type and 3-D response surface plots developed by using models developed. These plots developed a better understanding regarding the impact of temperature and incubation time on bio-hydrogen production trend, glucose consumption during incubation and volatile fatty acids production.

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Short summary
The study focuses on co-digestion of food waste and its derivatives i.e. noodle waste and rice waste with sludge in order to produce bio-hydrogen. The pH was set at 7 initially and was not controlled throughout the incubation in order to make the process simple. Noodle waste produced maxim bio-hydrogen production as compared to food waste and rice waste. The increase in temperature increased the bio-hydrogen production for food waste but caused negative impact on noodle and rice wastes.
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