title: Producing hydrogen from wastewater sludge by Clostridium bifermentans.
abstract: Excess wastewater sludge collected from the recycling stream of an activated sludge process is biomass that contains large quantities of polysaccharides and proteins. However, relevant literature indicates that the bio-conversion of wastewater sludge to hydrogen is limited and therefore not economically feasible. This work examined the anaerobic digestion of wastewater sludge using a clostridium strain isolated from the sludge as inoculum. A much higher hydrogen yield than presented in the literature was obtained. Also, the effects of five pre-treatments-ultrasonication, acidification, sterilization, freezing/thawing and adding methanogenic inhibitor-on the production of hydrogen were examined. Freezing and thawing and sterilization increased the specific hydrogen yield by 1.5-2.5 times to that of untreated sludge, while adding an inhibitor and ultrasonication reduced the hydrogen yield.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: C W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: C P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: B-V
authors.initials: BV
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Liao
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis / Q000502:physiology; D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D003013:Clostridium / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000528:radiation effects; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005615:Freezing; D006859:Hydrogen / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008698:Mesylates / Q000494:pharmacology; D008697:Methane / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology*; D013010:Sonication; D013045:Species Specificity; D013242:Sterilization; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D008698:Mesylates; D012722:Sewage; C045880:methanesulfonic acid; D006859:Hydrogen; D008697:Methane