Biological hydrogen production by anaerobic sludge at various temperatures

In this paper, experiments were conducted to investigate H 2 production from glucose by mixed anaerobic cultures at various temperatures in the mesophilic range. Results showed that glucose degradation rate and efficiency, H 2 yield, and growth rate of H 2 -producing bacteria all increased as the temperature increased from 33 to 41 ∘ C . However, the specific H 2 production rate increased with increasing temperature from 33 to 39 ∘ C , then decreased as the temperature was further increased to 41 ∘ C . The distribution of aqueous products was also greatly influenced by temperature variation. H 2 yield and growth rate of H 2 -producing cultures had a linear relationship with temperature. A modified Gompertz model was able to adequately describe the H 2 production and microbial growth in the mesophilic range. The activation energies for H 2 production and microbial growth were estimated as 107.66 and 204.77 kJ/mol, respectively.