| dc.description.abstract | Abundant biomass from various industries could be a source for biohydrogen
production where combination of waste treatment and energy production would be an
advantage. Potential biomass that could be the substrates for biohydrogen generation
include food waste, agricultural waste, dairy wastes, palm oil mill effluent (POME) and
municipal solid waste. The objective of this research was to maximize the biohydrogen
production in a waste medium (molasses). In this research, a biohydrogen producing
bacteria, Clostridium butyricum was isolated from FERMPRO wastewater sludge
(molasses) by using a heat-shock as a pre-treatment method for inoculum preparation.
The cultivation and inoculum preparation was done using the Reinforced Clostridium
Media (RCM). Pre-settled waste (molasses) with COD composition of 75 mg/L was
used as a medium. Gas and hydrogen production was modelled using modified
Gompertz equation. Study on the effect of inoculum activity showed that older
inoculum will significantly increase the period of lag phase and also reduce the total of
gas production. The absence of a lag phase made the gas production cease in 15 hours,
which translate to a fast kinetic of gas production. Experiments were also conducted to
study the effect of pH on gas production. The optimum condition of pH is pH 8.0 which
the highest yield of hydrogen production obtained is 40 mL H2/L-medium at the
constant temperature, 37 °C. Based on the result in this study, optimization of the
culture condition for Clostridium butyricum provides highest potential for biohydrogen
production. | en_US |
