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Enhanced hydrogen production in microbial electrolysis through strategies of carbon recovery from alkaline/thermal treated sludge

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the biohydrogen production from thermal (T), alkaline (A) or thermal-alkaline (TA) pretreated sludge fermentation liquid (SFL) in a microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) without buffer addition. Highest hydrogen yield of 36.87±4.36 mgH2/gVSS (0.026 m3/kg COD) was achieved in TA pretreated SFL separated by centrifugation, which was 5.12, 2.35 and 43.25 times higher than that of individual alkaline, thermal pretreatment and raw sludge, respectively. Separating SFL from sludge by centrifugation eliminated the negative effects of particulate matters, was more conducive for hydrogen production than filtration. The accumulated short chain fatty acid (SCFAs) after pretreatments were the main substrates for MEC hydrogen production. The maximum utilization ratio of acetic acid, propionic acid and n-butyric acid was 93.69%, 90.72% and 91.85%, respectively. These results revealed that pretreated WAS was highly efficient to stimulate the accumulation of SCFAs. And the characteristics and cascade bioconversion of complex substrates were the main factor that determined the energy efficiency and hydrogen conversion rate of MECs.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51778607), and the Natural Science Fundation of Heilongjiang Province, China (No. LH2019E071).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China

    Ling Wang, Chuan Chen & Aijie Wang

  2. Heilongjiang Cold Region Wetland Ecology and Environment Research Key Laboratory, School of Geography and Tourism, Harbin University, Harbin, 150086, China

    Chunxue Yang

  3. Department of Energy and Refrigerating Air-Conditioning Engineering, Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, 10608, China

    Sangeetha Thangavel

  4. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, 212013, China

    Zechong Guo

  5. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Aijie Wang & Wenzong Liu

Authors
  1. Ling Wang
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  2. Chunxue Yang
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  3. Sangeetha Thangavel
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  4. Zechong Guo
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  5. Chuan Chen
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  6. Aijie Wang
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  7. Wenzong Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Wenzong Liu.

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Highlights

• High hydrogen yield is recovered from thermal-alkaline pretreated sludge.

• Separating SFL by centrifugation is better than filtration for hydrogen recovery.

• The cascaded bioconversion of complex substrates in MECs are studied.

• Energy and electron efficiency related to substrate conversion are evaluated.

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Wang, L., Yang, C., Thangavel, S. et al. Enhanced hydrogen production in microbial electrolysis through strategies of carbon recovery from alkaline/thermal treated sludge. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 15, 56 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1348-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-020-1348-4

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