A kinetic approach to anaerobic hydrogen-producing process

Kinetics of hydrogen production from sucrose by mixed anaerobic cultures was investigated, and the Gompertz model was modified to describe the growth of hydrogen-producing microorganisms, consumption of substrate and formation of product in this work. A modified Gompertz model could adequately fit the experimental results. The effects of pH, temperature and the ratio of the initial substrate concentration to initial biomass concentration (S0/X0) on the maximum specific microbial growth rate (μm) were evaluated using a response-surface methodology. Experimental results show that pH, temperature and S0/X0 all had an influence on μm. The effect of pH and the second-order effect of pH and temperature were significant. A maximum μm of 0.078 h−1 was estimated under the optimum conditions of pH 5.5, temperature 34.6 °C and S0/X0 of 4.3 g/g-VSS. Modeling of microbial growth, substrate consumption and product formation was useful for optimizing the anaerobic hydrogen-producing process.