2011 International Conference on Alternative Energy in Developing Countries and Emerging Economies
- 93 -
A Feasibility Study of Biohydrogen
Production from Brewery Wastewater by
Various Pretreatment Methods of Bacteria
C. Somjit*, N. Sinbuathong
**
and S Leungprasert
*
and D. Watts
***
*Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kasetsart University,(
Thailand
)
**Scientific Equipment and Research Division, Kasetsart University Research and Development Institute
(KURDI), Kasetsart University, (
Thailand
) Correspond to email:
***Otto H. York Center for Environmental Engineering and Science, New Jersey Institute of Technology, (
USA
)
Abstract
--The objective of this research was a feasibility
study on biohydrogen production from brewery
wastewater through dark fermentation. Five pretreatment
methods, (heat, acid, base, chloroform and freezing and
thawing methods), were applied to a brewery digester
sludge in order to suppress methane producing bacteria.
At first, glucose-based substrate was fed daily at the flow
rate of 500 ml/day to the five reactors that contained
separate pretreated bacteria. Then, brewery wastewater of
6000 mgCOD/l was fed to the reactor in the same manner.
Experiments were performed at the initial wastewater pH
of 6.3 and at ambient temperature of 30
0
C. The results
indicated that this culture can be used as inoculum in
biohydrogen production after heat, acid or base
pretreatment. However, chloroform (2% by volume) or
freezing (-20
0
C) pretreatment methods were not able to
suppress methane producing bacteria. The brewery
wastewater was not effective as the sole carbon substrate
for biohydrogen production.
Index Terms
--Anaerobic Digestion, Brewery
Wastewater, Biogas, Hydrogen
I.
I
NTRODUCTION
Biohydrogen production by dark fermentation is a
promising way of generating economical and sustainable
energy [1]. Dark fermentative hydrogen (H
2
) production
is feasible for industrialization, with simpler control
requirements and lower operating costs than many other
possible routes for hydrogen production [2,3], and thus
has broad application prospects [4]. Most of the previous
work used glucose as a model for wastewater.Many
industrial wastes, including paper mill wastes
1
cellulose,
municipal solid waste, food wastes, rice winery
wastewater, sweet potato starch residues, and wheat
starch co-product, etc. have been studied to produce H
2
[5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10]. However, few studies have discussed
H
2
production from brewery wastewater. A great deal of
brewery wastewater was discharged in beer production
[11]. With a high content of carbohydrates and with
This work was supported by Kasetsart University Research and
Development Institute (KURDI), Kasetsart University, Bangkok,
Thailand
.
abundant availability, brewery wastewater should be an
excellent potential source for H
2
fermentation.
Biological H
2
production is greatly influenced by many
factors, including strain type, substrate concentration,
cell concentration, carbon to nitrogen ratio, temperature,
and pH [2, 12]. Shi et al. 2010 [13] had performed a
batch experiment to study biohydrogen production from
brewery wastewater by adding nutrients and found that
optimum H
2
production conditions were found at
35.9
0
C, pH 5.95 and with a brewery wastewater
concentration 6000 mg COD/l. Brewery plants produce
large quantities of wastewater with high concentrations
of organic pollutants and low concentrations of nutrients
[14]. The objective of this current work was to study the
feasibility of biological H
2
production by using normal
brewery wastewater as a sole carbon source without
supplement with any nutrients. Experiments were
performed at the original pH of wastewater from the
treatment plant and at ambient conditions. The
experiments were designed to study the feasibility of H
2
production by bacteria originating from the digester of
the brewery wastewater treatment plant.
II. M
ATERIALS AND METHODS
A. Original Sludge and Brewery Wastewater
Digested sludge was collected from the bottom of the
upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) of the brewery
wastewater treatment. The concentration of the volatile
suspended solids (VSS) associated with the sludge was
approximately 4000 mg/l.
Brewery wastewater typically shows large variations
in strength [15]. In this study, wastewater was collected
from the equalization tank (EQ tank) of the wastewater
treatment plant and from yeast wastes from the beer
production process. The wastewater used in the
experiments was prepared by commingling yeast wastes
with the wastewater from the EQ tank. The COD of the
wastewater used in this study was prepared to be 6000
mgCOD/l.
B. Pretreatment Methods for Bacteria
Five pretreatment methods [16,17,18] were used to
inactivate H
2
utilizing bacteria, thereby selecting and
