Journal of Environmental Biology

Study on improvement of continuous hydrogen production by photosynthetic biofilm in interior illuminant reactor

Wenhui Liu^1,2, Linjiang Yuan¹* and Bo Wei³

¹School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi'an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi'an-710055, China

²School of Material and Chemical Engineering, Xi'an Technological University, Xi'an-710021, China,

³School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Xinjiang University, Urumqi-830047, China

*Corresponding Author E-mail: yuanlinjiang@xauat.edu.cn

Publication Data

Paper received:

28 January 2016

Revised received:

26 March 2016

Accepted:

08 April 2016

Abstract

In the present study, a new type of interior optical fiber illuminating reactor was developed for H₂ production to solve the problem of luminous intensity attenuation at the center portion of a reactor, and an immobilization technique was used to enhance the stability of a continuous hydrogen production process with attached photosynthetic bacteria, using glucose as a sole carbon substrate for the indigenous photosynthetic bacteria (PSB) Rhodopseudomonas palustris SP-6. Results of the experiments showed that the interior optical fiber illuminating reactor produces H₂ more efficiently and productively than the exterior light source reactor, with the cumulative H₂ production, the maximum H₂ production rate and H₂ yield increased by 813ml, 11.3ml l^-1 h^-1 and 22.3%, respectively. The stability of the product of continuous hydrogen was realized by immobilizing PSB on the surface of powder active carbon(PAC). After adding the dosage of 2.0g l^-1 PAC, the continuous steady operation of H₂ production gave a high H₂ yield of 1.398 mol H₂ mol^-1 glucose and an average H₂ production rate of 35.1ml l^-1 h^-1 illuminating with a single interior optical fiber light source. Meanwhile, a higher H₂ yield of 1.495 mol H₂ mol^-1 glucose and an average H₂ production rate of 38.7ml l^-1 h^-1 were attained illuminating with a compound lamp in the continuous H₂ production for 20 days.

Key words

Photosynthetic bacteria, Hydrogen production, Interior illuminant photobioreactor, Rhodopseudomonas palustris, Optical fiber 

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