Evaluation of the stability of hydrogen production and microbial diversity by anaerobic sludge with chloroform treatment

• Published in: Renewable energy 2012-02, Vol.38 (1), p.253-257
• Main Authors: Ning, Yan-Yan, Jin, Da-Wei, Sheng, Guo-Ping, Harada, Hideki, Shi, Xian-Yang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alternative fuels. Production and utilization; Anaerobic H 2 production; Anaerobic treatment; Applied sciences; Bacteria; CHCl 3 treatment; Chloroform; clones; Clostridium; Clostridium cellulosi; denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis; Energy; Exact sciences and technology; Fuels; Hydrogen; hydrogen production; Janthinobacterium; Megasphaera; methanogens; microbial communities; Microorganisms; PCR-DGGE; renewable energy sources; Sludge; Stability; Strain
• ISSN: 0960-1481; 1879-0682
• DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2011.07.038

The stability of biological H 2 production and microbial diversity by anaerobic sludge treated chloroform with different concentrations were investigated in this work. Taking into account the cumulative H 2 production, H 2 percentage, maximum H 2 production rate, H 2 yield and substrate utilization efficiency together, 0.050% of CHCl 3 concentration was found to be appropriate for enhancing anaerobic H 2 production. The repeated batch tests revealed a good stability of H 2 production with the inocula treated by chloroform at different concentrations. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis demonstrates that CHCl 3 showed desirable selective inhibition on methanogens, rather than H 2-producing bacteria. The favorable microbial communities for fermentative H 2 production by anaerobic sludge were uncultured bacterium clones nbt176c01, Janthinobacterium sp.7, Megasphaera paucivorans strain VTT E−03234, Clostridium cellulosi strain D3 and Clostridium sp. HPB-4. ► The feasibility applying chloroform with different concentrations to enrich H2-producing bacteria in anaerobic sludge was explored. ► The H2 production stability was evaluated by a repeated batch mode and microbial community structure was also investigated using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. ► Considerable improvement of dark fermentative H 2 production was achieved by using chloroform treatment.