Kinetics of Nano-catalysed Dark Fermentative Hydrogen Production from Distillery Wastewater

Kinetics of nano-catalysed dark fermentative biohydrogen production from molasses-based distillery wastewater has been reported. Iron oxide nanoparticle was supplemented (10-200 mgL -1 ) to the wastewater to enhance the biohydrogen production. Andrew's inhibition model was employed to evaluate the rate of hydrogen production (R H2 ) and hydrogen yield at different concentration of iron oxide nanoparticles. The maximum R H2 and specific hydrogen yield (SHY) for the fermentative hydrogen production system at different concentration of iron oxide nanoparticle were found to be 80.7 ml/hr and 44.28 ml H 2 /g COD. Michaelis-Menton equation was applied to determine the rate of hydrogen production (R H2 ) and yield of H 2 (SHY) at different initial pH (5, 6 & 7). Andrew's inhibition model has been used to describe the inhibitory effect of substrate concentration on the rate of H2 production (R H2 ). R H2 decreased with the increase in substrate concentration but SHY first decreased with substrate concentration and it is maximum at higher substrate concentration of 110 gL -1 . Monod model has been used to determine the growth kinetic parameters. The values of maximum rates of microbial growth (μ m ) and substrate utilization (R su ) were 0.1 g biomass/g biomass/day and 14.03 g COD/g biomass/day respectively at different iron oxide nanoparticles concentration.