Audrey Soric

Anaerobic biofilm reactors for dark fermentative hydrogen production from wastewater: A review

Dark fermentation is a bioprocess driven by anaerobic bacteria that can produce hydrogen (H2) from organic waste and wastewater. This review analyses a relevant number of recent studies that have investigated dark fermentative H2 production from wastewater using two different types of anaerobic biofilm reactors: anaerobic packed bed reactor (APBR) and anaerobic fluidized bed reactor (AFBR). The effect of various parameters, including temperature, pH, carrier material, inoculum pretreatment, hydraulic retention time, substrate type and concentration, on reactor performances was investigated by a critical discussion of the results published in the literature. Also, this review presents an in-depth study on the influence of the main operating parameters on the metabolic pathways. The aim of this review is to provide to researchers and practitioners in the field of H2 production key elements for the best operation of the reactors. Finally, some perspectives and technical challenges to improve H2 production were proposed.

Calibration of hydrodynamic behavior and biokinetics for TOC removal modeling in biofilm reactors under different hydraulic conditions.

In this study, total organic carbon (TOC) biodegradation was simulated by GPS-X software in biofilm reactors with carriers of plastic rings and glass beads under different hydraulic conditions. Hydrodynamic model by retention time distribution and biokinetic measurement by in-situ batch test served as two significant parts of model calibration. Experimental results showed that TOC removal efficiency was stable in both media due to the enough height of column, although the actual hydraulic volume changed during the variation of hydraulic condition. Simulated TOC removal efficiencies were close to experimental ones with low theil inequality coefficient values (below 0.15). Compared with glass beads, more TOC was removed in the filter with plastic rings due to the larger actual hydraulic volume and lower half saturation coefficient in spite of its lower maximum specific growth rate of biofilm, which highlighted the importance of calibrating hydrodynamic behavior and biokinetics.

Fermentative hydrogen production in an up-flow anaerobic biofilm reactor inoculated with a co-culture of Clostridium acetobutylicum and Desulfovibrio vulgaris

Dark fermentation systems often show low H2 yields and unstable H2 production, as the result of the variability of microbial dynamics and metabolic pathways. Recent batch investigations have demonstrated that an artificial consortium of two anaerobic bacteria, Clostridium acetobutylicum and Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough, may redirect metabolic fluxes and improve H2 yields. This study aimed at evaluating the scale-up from batch to continuous H2 production in an up-flow anaerobic packed-bed reactor (APBR) continuously fed with a glucose-medium. The effects of various parameters, including void hydraulic retention time (HRTv), pH, and alkalinity, on H2 production performances and metabolic pathways were investigated. The results demonstrated that a stable H2 production was reached after 3-4days of operation. H2 production rates increased significantly with decreasing HRTv from 4 to 2h. Instead, H2 yields remained almost stable despite the change in HRTv, indicating that the decrease in HRTv did not affect the global metabolism.

Interpreting hydrodynamic behaviour by the model of stirred tanks in series with exchanged zones: preliminary study in lab-scale trickling filters

In trickling filters for wastewater treatment, hydrodynamic behaviour is affected by the growth of biofilm on the porous medium. Therefore, modelling hydrodynamic behaviour is necessary and efficient to predict the biodegradation of pollutants. In this study, laboratory-scale trickling filters were filled with two different porous media (glass beads and plastic rings) and were fed by a synthetic substrate in batch mode. Total organic carbon (TOC) of the effluent was measured and retention time distribution (RTD) was determined by injecting NaCl. Results showed that medium had no significant effect on TOC removal rate (around 80% and 60% respectively for batch time of seven and two days). However, regarding the hydrodynamic behaviour, the effective volume ratio and hydraulic efficiency in the glass beads bed increased remarkably from 28% and 18% to 80% and 70%, respectively, with the reduction of dispersion coefficient (from 4.55 to 1.53). Moreover, the short batch time accelerated this change. Conversely, no variation of hydrodynamic behaviour in plastic rings bed was evident. Along with the feeding of synthetic substrate, biofilm concentration ranged from 1.5 to 10.1 g/L in the glass beads reactor and it achieved around 2.8 g/L in the plastic rings reactor. Hydrodynamic modelling indicated that the model of stirred tanks in series with exchanged zones fitted the experimental results well. These gave values of mobile and immobile volumes of 51 mL and 17 mL, respectively, in the glass beads filter and 25 mL and 15 mL, respectively, in the plastic rings filter.