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A novel anaerobic two-phase system for biohydrogen production and in situ extraction of organic acid byproducts

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Abstract

Owing to CO2-free emission, hydrogen is considered as a potential green alternative of fossil fuels. Water is the major emission of hydrogen combustion process and gravimetric energy density of hydrogen is nearly three times more than that of gasoline and diesel fuel. Biological hydrogen production, therefore, has commercial significance; especially, when it is produced from low-cost industrial waste-based feedstock. Light independent anaerobic fermentation is simple and mostly studied method of biohydrogen production. During hydrogen production by this method, a range of organic acid byproducts are produced. Accumulation of these byproducts is inhibitory for hydrogen production as it may result in process termination due to sharp decrease in medium pH or by possible metabolic shift. For the first time, therefore, a two-phase anaerobic bioreactor system has been reported for biohydrogen production which involves in situ extraction of different organic acids. Among different solvents, based on biocompatibility oleyl alcohol has been chosen as the organic phase of the two-phase system. An organic:aqueous phase ratio of 1:50 has been found to be optimum for hydrogen production. The strategy was capable of increasing the hydrogen production from 1.48 to 11.65 mmol/L-medium.

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Acknowledgments

CRIQ, NSERC, MRI (Quebec-Parana and Quebec-Vietnam) and INRS-ETE Canada have been acknowledged for financial support. The authors are also thankful to “merit scholarship program for foreign students (FQRNT)” for financial assistance to Saurabh Jyoti Sarma.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), Centre Eau, Terre and Environnement, 490, Rue de la Couronne, Quebec, QC, G1K 9A9, Canada

    Saurabh Jyoti Sarma & Satinder Kaur Brar

  2. Centre de Recherche Industrielle du Québec (CRIQ), Quebec, QC, G1P 4C7, Canada

    Yann Le Bihan & Gerardo Buelna

Authors
  1. Saurabh Jyoti Sarma
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  2. Satinder Kaur Brar
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  3. Yann Le Bihan
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  4. Gerardo Buelna
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Correspondence to Satinder Kaur Brar.

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Sarma, S.J., Brar, S.K., Le Bihan, Y. et al. A novel anaerobic two-phase system for biohydrogen production and in situ extraction of organic acid byproducts. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 38, 1097–1102 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-015-1352-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-015-1352-4

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