Biohydrogen production with anaerobic sludge immobilized by ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer

摘要

A novel synthetic polymer (ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer; EVA) was used to immobilize acclimated sewage sludge for H_2 production under anaerobic conditions. Using sucrose as the sole carbon substrate, the resulting EVA-immobilized cells achieved an optimal H_2 production rate (υ_(H_2)) of 488 mlH_2/gVSS and the best substrate-based yield (Y_(H_2)/sucrose) of 1.74 mol H_2/mol sucrose. Operation at a temperature of 40℃ resulted in the most efficient H_2 production. Acclimation of the sewage sludge allowed up to 3-fold enhancement on the performance of H_2 production. Kinetic studies show that a Monod-type model is able to describe the dependence of specific H_2 production rate on sucrose concentration. The immobilized cells maintained stable and efficient H_2 production during 15 repeated runs, indicating excellent durability and stability of the immobilized-cell system. The composition of soluble metabolites was found to be a reliable indicator for the efficiency of biohydrogenation.