• Xu, K.
;
• Lee, D.
;
• Kobayashi, T.
;
• Ebie, Y.
;
• Li, Y.
;
• Inamori, Y.

Abstract

To achieve the high-rate H2 and CH4 production from food waste using fermentative anaerobic microflora, the effects of carbonate-alkalinity in the recirculated digestion sludge on continuous two-stage fermentation were investigated. Higher H2 production rate of 2.9 L-H2/L/day was achieved at the recycle ratio of 1.0 in an alkalinity range of 9000 to 10000 mg-CaCO3/L. The maximum CH4 production rate was stably maintained at the range of 1.85 to 1.88 L-CH4/L/day without alkalinity change. Carbonate alkalinity in digestion sludge could reduce the H2 partial pressure in the headspace of the fermentation reactors, and improve a biogas production capacity in the two-stage fermentation process. The average volatile solids degradation rate in the overall process increased as the digestion sludge recycle increased from 0.5 to 1.0. These results show that the alkalinity in recycle of the digestion sludge is crucial factor in determining biogas (H2 and CH4) production capacity and reducing the total solids.