Effect of Substrate Concentration on Hydrogen Production from Fermentation of Sugar Wastewater

The biological hydrogen production by the sugar wastewater is an effective way to achieve the reclamation. In this paper, the effect of substrate concentration on the hydrogen production is discussed through employing the self-made continuous flow anaerobic fermentation hydrogen production reactor, taking the sludge in urban sewage treatment plant as the inoculated sludge and the simulated sugar wastewater as the substrate. The experimental results show that the best hydrogen production effect can be obtained when the temperature is (37+/-1) degrees C, HRT is 7h, the water alkalinity is around 530mg/L and the substrate concentration is 5000mg/L, namely the organic load is 60kgCOD/(m3.d). The volumes of gas production and hydrogen production both reach the maximum. The average values are respectively 36.2L/d and 21.8L/d. The obtained hydrogen production rate is 0.93kgCOD/(m3.d). During the whole process, the proportion of volatile acid composition remains stable, which is the butyric acid-type fermentation. When the concentration of COD is increased to 6000-8000mg/L, the ability of hydrogen production of system will be significantly dropped due to the increase of pH of system. The hydrogen production performance can be restored through artificially and timely lowering the water alkalinity. However, the hydrogen production rate will be decreased compared to the previous situation.