Cladophora sp. as a sustainable feedstock for dark fermentative biohydrogen production

Macroalgae are rich in carbohydrates which can be used as a promising substrate for fermentative biohydrogen production. In this study, Cladophora sp. biomass was fermented for biohydrogen production at various inoculum/substrate (I/S) ratios against a control of inoculum without substrate in laboratory-scale batch reactors. The biohydrogen production yield ranged from 40.8 to 54.7 ml H2/g-VS, with the I/S ratio ranging from 0.0625 to 4. The results indicated that low I/S ratios caused the overloaded accumulation of metabolic products and a significant pH decrease, which negatively affected hydrogen production bacteria's metabolic activity, thus leading to the decrease of hydrogen fermentation efficiency. The overall results demonstrated that Cladophora sp. biomass is an efficient fermentation feedstock for biohydrogen production. (c) 2022 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study found that low inoculum/substrate ratios in the fermentation process caused excessive accumulation of metabolic products and a significant decrease in pH, resulting in decreased hydrogen production efficiency. Cladophora sp. biomass was proven to be an efficient fermentation feedstock for biohydrogen production.