Enhanced bio-energy recovery in a two-stage hydrogen/methane fermentation process

Bioengineering of biowaste to recover bioproducts and bioenergy: A circular economy approach towards sustainable zero-waste environment

The inevitable need for waste valorisation and management has revolutionized the way in which the waste is visualised as a potential biorefinery for various product development rather than offensive trash. Biowaste has emerged as a potential feedstock to produce several value-added products. Bioenergy generation is one of the potential applications originating from the valorisation of biowaste. Bioenergy production requires analysis and optimization of various parameters such as biowaste composition and conversion potential to develop innovative and sustainable technologies for most effective utilization of biowaste with enhanced bioenergy production. In this context, feedstocks, such as food, agriculture, beverage, and municipal solid waste act as promising resources to produce renewable energy. Similarly, the concept of microbial fuel cells employing biowaste has clearly gained research focus in the past few decades. Despite of these potential benefits, the area of bioenergy generation still is in infancy and requires more interdisciplinary research to be sustainable alternatives. This review is aimed at analysing the bioconversion potential of biowaste to renewable energy. The possibility of valorising underutilized biowaste substrates is elaborately presented. In addition, the application and efficiency of microbial fuel cells in utilizing biowaste are described in detail taking into consideration of its great scope. Furthermore, the review addresses the significance bioreactor development for energy production along with major challenges and future prospects in bioenergy production. Based on this review it can be concluded that bioenergy production utilizing biowaste can clearly open new avenues in the field of waste valorisation and energy research. Systematic and strategic developments considering the techno economic feasibilities of this excellent energy generation process will make them a true sustainable alternative for conventional energy sources.

Evaluation of a novel pretreatment of NaOH/Urea at outdoor cold-winter conditions for enhanced enzymatic conversion and hythane production from rice straw

A novel pretreatment using NaOH/Urea (NU) solution at outdoor cold-winter conditions was developed to enhance the enzymatic saccharification and hythane production from rice straw (RS). Results revealed that the reducing sugar conversion of RS reached 90.02% after NU pretreatment at outdoor freezing temperature. Chemical composition analysis showed that the lignin removal was up to 62.74% with cellulose and hemicellulose loss of 0.56% and 18.87% after 3%-6% NU pretreatment at 100% solid loading for 3 months. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis confirmed that the surface of pretreated RS exposed more cellulose and hemicellulose due to the disruption of resistant structure of lignocellulose. Subsequently, the enzymatic hydrolysate of pretreated RS was used as substrate to produce hythane by two-stage fermentation with the yield of 225.1 mL H₂/g sugar and 112.8 mL CH₄/g sugar. The energy conversion efficiency of hythane fermentation attained 10.4%, which was 22.8% and 190.5% higher than that for single H₂ and CH₄ fermentation. These results demonstrated that NU pretreatment at outdoor cold-winter conditions was practically and feasible way for improved hythane recovery from lignocellulosic biomass.

Effects of OLRs and HRTs on hydrogen production from high salinity substrate by halophilic hydrogen producing bacterium (HHPB)

The effects of hydraulic retention time (HRT) and organic loading rate (OLR) on hydrogen production were investigated with glucose medium containing 2% NaCl. Halophilic hydrogen producing bacterium (HHPB) Clostridium bifermentans 3AT-ma, which can survive under high salt conditions, was used. Sponge media were used as 20% of working volume. The OLR and HRT were varied in 10-60 g-glucose/L-reactor/day and 24-6h. With OLR of 20 g-glucose/L/day, shorter HRT resulted in higher hydrogen producing rate and yield. When the OLR was increased from 20 to 60 g-glucose/L-reactor/day at HRT 6h, the hydrogen production rate increased, while the hydrogen production yield decreased due to the increase and accumulation of volatile fatty acids. Biohydrogen production was possible from the salinity substrate using HHPB, and the maximum hydrogen production yield was 1.1 mol-H₂/mol-glucose with optimal conditions of OLR of 20 g-glucose/L/day and HRT of 12h.

States and challenges for high-value biohythane production from waste biomass by dark fermentation technology

Hythane (H2+CH4) has attracted growing attention due to its versatile advantages as, for instance vehicle fuel. Biohythane consisting of biohydrogen and biomethane via two-stage fermentation is a potential high-value solution for the valorization of waste biomass resources and probably an alternative to the fossil based hythane. However, the significance and application potential of biohythane have not yet been fully recognized. This review focuses on the progress of biohydrogen and subsequent biomethane fermentation in terms of substrate, microbial consortium, reactor configuration, as well as the H2/CH4 ratio from the perspective of the feasibility of biohythane production in the past ten years. The current paper also covers how controls of the microbial consortium and bioprocess, system integration influence the biohythane productivity. Challenges and perspectives on biohythane technology will finally be addressed. This review provides a state-of-the-art technological insight into biohythane production by two-stage dark fermentation from biomass.