Bio-hydrogen production by self fermentation of vegetable waste: from screening of microbial diversity to bioaugmentation of indigenous fermentative communities
Author(s)
Marone, Antonella
Date Issued
March 21, 2012
Type
Doctoral Thesis
Abstract
Alternative production chains are called for to reduce the dependence on fossil fuel, to mitigate climate change and to redirect the current production processes towards natural closed ecological cycles. In this context, microbial dark fermentation is a promising way to produce H2 from organic waste contributing to solve two related emergencies: waste disposal and renewable clean energy production. The aim of this study was to asses an innovative approach for fermentative H2 production from common domestic organic waste: the analysis and improvement of the ability to produce H2 of indigenous microbial communities.
For this purpose the following objectives were pursued:
1. to explore the feasibility of H2 production by mesophilic self-fermentation of vegetable waste without pretreatment or added nutrients and to improve the process by controlling operative parameters;
2. to screen microbial diversity of the waste in order to isolate and identify potential H2-producers and to characterize the fermentation metabolism of isolates using glucose as nutrient source and optimization parameter;
3. to perform bioaugmentation of the indigenous microbial community in order to improve the H2 production by self-fermentation. To this purpose pure culture and bacterial consortium of three new strains, isolated and enriched from the same waste, were inoculated. The effects of the bioaugmentation in terms of H2 production were investigated, hydrolysis and fermentation pathways were also analyzed. Moreover, the three single strains were characterized for their ability to produce H2 on different sugars, key products of the hydrolysis of cellulose and hemicelluloses.
Additional information
Dottorato di ricerca in Ecologia e gestione delle risorse biologiche
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
amarone_tesid.pdf
Size
1.28 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b5a367d9d2d346ba83e7f584dfd7d30f