A pilot-scale study of biohydrogen production from distillery effluent using defined bacterial co-culture

We evaluated the feasibility of improving the scale of hydrogen (H2) production from sugar cane distillery effluent using co-cultures of Citrobacter freundii 01, Enterobacter aerogenes E10 and Rhodopseudomonas palustris P2 at 100 m3 scale. The culture conditions at 100 ml and 2 L scales were optimized in minimal medium and we observed that the co-culture of the above three strains enhanced H2 productivity significantly. Results at the 100 m3 scale revealed a maximum of 21.38 kg of H2, corresponding to 10692.6 mol, which was obtained through batch method at 40 h from reducing sugar (3862.3 mol) as glucose. The average yield of H2 was 2.76 mol mol−1 glucose, and the rate of H2 production was estimated as 0.53 kg/100 m3/h. Our results demonstrate the utility of distillery effluent as a source of clean alternative energy and provide insights into treatment for industrial exploitation.