Poster Presentation 2-31

Biohydrogen Production from Monosaccharides by Fermentation of Propionic Acid Type Fermentation Flora

N.Q. ren¹, J.Z. Li¹, S.N. Sin^1*, H. Chua² and P.H.F. Yu³

¹School of municipal and environmental Engineering

Harbin institute of technology

202 haihe road

Harbin 150090, China

Phone: +00852-98089228

E-mail: ceshsin@polyu.edu.hk

²Joint Research Centre for Water and Wastewater Treatment Technology

Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hong Kong, China

³Department of Applied Biology and Chemical Technology

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Hung Hom, Hong Kong, PRC

Biohydrogen production technology effectively generates renewable clean energy, namely hydrogen, through direct or indirect microbial metabolic pathways. Types of fermentation microflora undergo varied metabolic pathways and achieve different hydrogen productivity, which require much in-depth investigation before industrial applications may be put in feasible practice. In this work, hydrogen production by propionic acid type fermentation microflora from glucose, fructose, galactose and arabinose was investigated in a batch culture. Results showed that the hydrogen productivity from glucose was highest, at 188.31 mL/g.gVSS, and that from fructose and galactose were lower, at 88.76 and 70.92 mL/g.gVSS, respectively. Productivity from arabinose was significantly lower than that from the three aforementioned hexoses, at 21.16 mL/g.gVSS, which was attributed to the relatively complex degradation pathway that involved more specific enzymes. Furthermore, a longer lag phase and acclimation course was required before the fermentation flora could effectively utilize arabinose in the batch culture.