Boosting dark fermentation with co-cultures of extreme thermophiles for biohythane production from garden waste

• Autor(a) principal: Abreu, A. A.
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Tavares, F., Alves, M. M., Pereira, M. A.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/42331
• topic: Thermotaga maritima; Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus; Caldicellulosiruptor bescii; Co-cultures; Biohythane; Garden waste; Thermotoga maritima; Science & Technology

Proof of principle of biohythane and potential energy production from garden waste (GW) is demonstrated in this study in a two-step process coupling dark fermentation and anaerobic digestion. The synergistic effect of using co-cultures of extreme thermophiles to intensify biohydrogen dark fermentation is demonstrated using xylose, cellobiose and GW. Co-culture of Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus and Thermotoga maritima showed higher hydrogen production yields from xylose (2.7±0.1 mol mol -1 total sugar) and cellobiose (4.8±0.3 mol mol-1 total sugar) compared to individual cultures. Co-culture of extreme thermophiles C. saccharolyticus and Caldicellulosiruptor bescii increased synergistically the hydrogen production yield from GW (98.3±6.9 L kg-1 (VS)) compared to individual cultures and co-culture of T. maritima and C. saccharolyitcus. The biochemical methane potential of the fermentation end-products was 322±10 L kg-1 (CODt). Biohythane, a biogas enriched with 15% hydrogen could be obtained from GW, yielding a potential energy generation of 22.2 MJ kg-1 (VS).