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Enhanced biohydrogen generation from organic wastewater containing NH +4 by phototrophic bacteria Rhodobacter sphaeroides AR-3

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Abstract

NH +4 is typically an inhibitor to hydrogen production from organic wastewater by photo-bacteria. In this experiment, biohydrogen generation with wild-type anoxygenic phototrophic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroideswas found to be sensitive to NH +4 due to the significant inhibition of NH +4 to its nitrogenase. In order to avoid the inhibition of NH +4 to biohydrogen generation by R. sphaeroides, a glutamine auxotrophic mutant R. sphaeroides AR-3 was obtained by mutagenizing with ethyl methane sulfonate. The AR-3 mutant could generate biohydrogen efficiently in the hydrogen production medium with a higher NH +4 concentration, because the inhibition of NH +4 to nitrogenase of AR-3 was released. Under suitable conditions, AR-3 effectively produced biohydrogen from tofu wastewater, which normally contains 50–60 mg/L NH +4 , with an average generation rate of 14.2 mL/L·h. This generation rate was increased by more than 100% compared with that from wild-type R. sphaeroides.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Guanghong Zheng, Zhuhui Kang, Yifan Qian & Lei Wang

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  1. Guanghong Zheng
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  2. Zhuhui Kang
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  3. Yifan Qian
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  4. Lei Wang
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Correspondence to Lei Wang.

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Zheng, G., Kang, Z., Qian, Y. et al. Enhanced biohydrogen generation from organic wastewater containing NH +4 by phototrophic bacteria Rhodobacter sphaeroides AR-3. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. China 3, 387–392 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-009-0154-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-009-0154-9

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