The chemostat study of metabolic distribution in extreme-thermophilic (70 A degrees C) mixed culture fermentation

摘要

The effects of pH, hydrogen partial pressure (P-H2), and influent glucose concentration on the metabolic distribution in chemostat were investigated in this work in extreme-thermophilic mixed culture fermentation (MCF) process. The results showed that acetate, ethanol, and hydrogen were the main metabolites. A shift of ethanol to acetate and hydrogen was observed as pH increasing from 4.0 to 7.0 or P-H2 decreasing from 0.64 to 0.05 atm. The maximum hydrogen yield was 3.16 +/- 0.16 mol/mol glucose at P-H2 0.05 atm. Lactate was only accumulated at low pH or high influent glucose concentration, while others such as butyrate and formate were rather low. Thermodynamic analysis illustrated that a mixture of acetate, ethanol, and/or lactate was essential for hydrogen production in extreme-thermophilic MCF. The hydrogen-producing rate was also calculated, and the maximum value was 2.2 +/- 0.1 L/(L-reactor/day) at P-H2 0.05 atm. Except hydrogen, other metabolites, such as liquid fatty acids and biofuels, could also be the producing targets in extreme-thermophilic MCF.