Biohydrogen production integrated with an external dynamic membrane: A novel approach

A dynamic membrane bioreactor integrating a self-forming dynamic membrane with a continuous fermenter was designed for biohydrogen production using mixed cultures under mesophilic conditions. The novel configuration used was designed to retain effective hydrogen producing bacterial consortia and was investigated at hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of 12–2 h at a constant glucose feed concentration of 15 g/L. A dynamic membrane was successfully formed on support material in an external module and this resulted in a maximum hydrogen production rate of 51.38 L/L-day and a peak hydrogen yield of 2.98 mol/mol glucose_added at 3 h HRT. Acetate and butyrate were dominant metabolic by-products. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis revealed that Clostridium butyricum was the dominant microbial consortium under all HRT conditions examined.