Development of a novel three-stage fermentation system converting food waste to hydrogen and methane

In this study, a novel three-stage (lactate- + photo-H-2 + CH4) fermentation system was developed, which converts food waste to H-2 and CH4, with an emphasis on achieving high H-2 yield. The system begins by first fermenting food waste to lactate, rather than acetate and butyrate, using indigenous lactic acid bacteria. Lactate fermentation effluent was then centrifuged, and the supernatant was used for H-2 production by photo-fermentation, while the residue was used for CH4 production by anaerobic digestion. Overall, via the three-stage fermentation system, 41% and 37% of the energy content in the food waste was converted to H-2 and CH4, respectively, corresponding to the electrical energy yield of 1146 MJ/ton-food waste, which is 1.4 times higher value than that of previous two-stage dark (H-2 + CH4) fermentation system. The H-2 yield based on hexose input was 8.35 mol H-2/mol hexose(added), the highest value ever reported from actual organic waste. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.