• Energy Research

Recently, upflow microaerobic sludge blanket (UMSB) system has been developed to remove ammonium and organic matter simultaneously. This study aims to establish influent and operational conditions promoting anammox-based nitrogen removal process in the UMSB reactor by using a modified Activated Sludge Model. Experiments were performed on a laboratory-scale UMSB reactor treated piggery wastewater for over two years. With the experimentally determined model parameters, the established model well simulated the UMSB reactor performance. The maximum anammox growth rate was calibrated to be 0.41 d-1 at 35 °C. Further simulations showed that UMSB reactor operated with high influent organics or nitrogen loading rates at temperature above 15 °C can achieve efficient nitrogen removal (>70%). The nitrogen loading over 0.6 kg N/(m3·d)) significantly favors anammox activity. UMSB could also be a promising system for nitrogen removal from low-strength ammonium wastewater with fluctuated COD influence. These results provide support to UMSB design and operational optimization.

To enhance the co-production of butanol and hydrogen by the acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation of Clostridium beijerinckii, a novel cathodic electro-fermentation (CEF) system was constructed with neutral red (NR) as electron mediator. With the mediation of NR, production of butanol and hydrogen from glucose in the CEF system achieved 5.49 ± 0.28 g/L and 3.74 ± 0.16 L/L, 569.5% and 325.0% higher than that in the open circuit (OC) system, respectively. The butanol and hydrogen yield of 0.30 ± 0.02 g/g and 206.53 ± 8.20 mL/g was 172.7% and 71.4% higher than that in the OC system, respectively. The effective co-production of butanol and hydrogen in the NR-mediated CEF system was attributed to the cooperation of the introduced polarized electrode and the additional NR. With the control of the polarized electrode, a feasible ORP was available for the effective hydrogen production. And the additional NR had induced more carbon source and electrons to the synthesis of butanol.

This study presents a novel approach based on addition of biochar generated from residue of cornstalk left after pretreatment and hydrolysis (RCPH-biochar) to improve hydrogen production from cornstalk hydrolysate. RCPH-biochar at concentration of 15 g L-1 substantially enhanced hydrogen generation during batch tests, with the highest cumulative hydrogen volume (3990 mL L-1) being 1.7 times that without RCPH-biochar. Then, continuous hydrogen production performance demonstrated that RCPH-biochar was capable of retaining biomass in the reactor, at 6 h hydraulic retention time, hydrogen production rate (22.8 mmol H2 L-1 h-1) was tripled compared to the control, meanwhile, glucose and xylose utilization reached to 82.3% and 54.6%, respectively. Overall material balance indicates continuous hydrogen production with RCPH-biochar enabled 63.4% higher cornstalk transfer to H2 and 53.3% more cornstalk utilization. The findings reported is a closed-loop process and is economically and environmentally attractive, which might support comprehensive cornstalk utilization with less energy input in the future.

Three-layered feedforward backpropagation (BP) artificial neural networks (ANN) and multiple nonlinear regression (MnLR) models were developed to estimate biogas and methane yield in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor treating potato starch processing wastewater (PSPW). Anaerobic process parameters were optimized to identify their importance on methanation. pH, total chemical oxygen demand, ammonium, alkalinity, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, total phosphorus, volatile fatty acids and hydraulic retention time selected based on principal component analysis were used as input variables, whiles biogas and methane yield were employed as target variables. Quasi-Newton method and conjugate gradient backpropagation algorithms were best among eleven training algorithms. Coefficient of determination (R2) of the BP-ANN reached 98.72% and 97.93% whiles MnLR model attained 93.9% and 91.08% for biogas and methane yield, respectively. Compared with the MnLR model, BP-ANN model demonstrated significant performance, suggesting possible control of the anaerobic digestion process with the BP-ANN model.

Producing caproic acid via carboxylate platform is an environmentally-friendly approach for treating lignocellulosic agricultural waste. However, its implementation is still challenged by low product yields and selectivity. A microbiome named cellulolytic acid-producing microbiome (DCB), proficient in producing cellulolytic acid, was successfully acquired and shows promise for producing high-level caproic acid. In this study, a bioaugmentation method utilizing Clostridium kluyveri is proposed to enhance caproic acid yield of DCB using rice straw. With exogenous ethanol, bioaugmentation with Clostridium kluyveri significantly improved the caproic acid concentration and selectivity by 7 times and 4.5 times, achieving 12.9 g/L and 55.1 %, respectively. The addition of Clostridium kluyveri introduced reverse β-oxidation pathway, a more efficient caproic acid production pathway. Meanwhile, bioaugmentation enriched the bacteria proficient in degrading straw and producing short-chain fatty acids, providing more substrates for caproic acid production. This study provides potential bioaugmentation strategies for optimizing caproic acid yield from lignocellulosic biomass.

Abstract To develop an effective acetone-butanol-ethanol (ABE) fermentation process for the enhanced co-production of butanol and H2, a series of neutral red mediated cathodic electro-fermentation (CEF) processes of Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 were conducted with/without exogenous butyric acid as the co-substrate of glucose. The cathode potential, NR dosage, glucose concentration and exogenous butyric acid concentration were optimized progressively. The results showed that the most favorable cathode potential, NR dosage, glucose concentration and exogenous butyric acid was -0.60 V (vs Ag/AgCl), 0.50 mmol/L, 30 g/L and 3.00 g/L, respectively. With the optimal condition, the metabolism in the CEF process of C. beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 was well manipulated, resulting the excellent production of butanol and H2 as high as 10.85 ± 0.45 g/L and 4.33 ± 0.40 L/L-medium, respectively. The excellent butanol yield of 0.40 ± 0.00 g/g-glucose (0.60 ± 0.01 mol-C/mol-C) and H2 yield of 161.69 ± 19.28 mL/g-glucose resulted an energy recovery (ER) and energy recovery efficiency (ERE) as high as 446.90 ± 21.39 kJ/L-medium and 95.85 ± 1.62%, respectively. The optimized CEF process demonstrates an effective approach to manipulating the microbial metabolism of Clostridia for the enhanced co-production of butanol and H2.