Hydrogen production from biodiesel byproduct by immobilized Enterobacter aerogenes

Jinmi Han, Dohoon Lee, Jinku Cho, Jeewon Lee, Sangyong Kim

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    17 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The recent rapid growth of the biodiesel industry has generated a significant amount of glycerol as a byproduct. As a result, the price of glycerol is currently relatively low, making it an attractive starting material for the production of chemicals with higher values. Crude glycerol can be directly converted through microbial fermentation into various chemicals such as hydrogen. In this study, we optimized immobilization of a facultative hydrogen producing microorganism, Enterobacter aerogenes, with the goal of developing biocatalysts that was appropriate for the continuous hydrogen production from glycerol. Several carriers were tested and agar was found to be the most effective. In addition, it was clearly shown that variables such as the carrier content and cell loading should be controlled for the immobilization of biocatalysts with high hydrogen productivity, stability, and reusability. After optimization of these variables, we were able to obtain reusable biocatalysts that could directly convert the byproduct stream from biodiesel processes into hydrogen in continuous processes.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)151-157
    Number of pages7
    JournalBioprocess and Biosystems Engineering
    Volume35
    Issue number1-2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012 Jan

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    Acknowledgments This work was financially supported by the Eco-Technopia 21 project (2009-03002-002-0) of Ministry of Environment, Korea and by the Basic Research Program of Korea Institute of Industrial Technology.

    Keywords

    • Agar
    • Biodiesel
    • Enterobacter aerogenes
    • Hydrogen
    • Immobilization

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Biotechnology
    • Bioengineering

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