Simultaneous bio-electricity and bio-hydrogen production in a continuous flow single microbial electrochemical reactor

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the simultaneous production of bio-electricity and bio-hydrogen using a novel continuous flow single chamber hydrogen-producing microbial electrochemical reactor (sMER-H-2). The inocula tested were: raw municipal wastewater (I 1), sporulated Gram-positive bacteria (I 2), and a mixture of anaerobic granular sludge with sediments thermally pretreated (I 3). The best performance for bioelectrochemical and simultaneous hydrogen production occurred when the inoculum I 3 was tested. The maximum voltage generated with an external resistance of 1000 omega was 671 mV. The maximum power density and volumetric density obtained in the sMER-H-2 was 46 mW/m(2) and 6.4 W/m(3), respectively. The maximum bio-hydrogen production rate was 5.2 L H-2/L center dot d., reaching up to 2.39 mol H-2/mol sucrose. Using this new configuration of microbial fuel cell, high bio-electricity and high bio-hydrogen production were simultaneously generated. (c) 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 38: 297-304, 2019