Authors: Trevor Seelert Dipankar Ghosh Viviane Yargeau
Publish Date: 2015/03/03
Volume: 99, Issue: 9, Pages: 4107-4116
Abstract
In order to supplement the need for alternative energy resources within the near future enhancing the production of biohydrogen with immobilized Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB8052 was investigated Magnetite nanoparticles were functionalized with chitosan and alginic acid polyelectrolytes using a layerbylayer method to promote bacterial attachment Cultivating C beijerinckii with these nanoparticles resulted in a shorter lag growth phase and increased total biohydrogen production within 100ml 250ml and 36L reactors compared with freely suspended organisms The greatest hydrogen yield was obtained in the 250ml reactor with a value of 21 ± 07 mol H2/mol glucose corresponding to substrate conversion and energy conversion efficiencies of 52 ± 18 and 10 ± 3 respectively The hydrogen yields obtained using the immobilized bacteria are comparable to values found in literature However to make this process viable further improvements are required to increase the substrate and energy conversion efficienciesWe would like to thank Prof Patrick C Hallenbeck for his technical advice throughout the project Special thanks to Mr Ranjan Roy for his help with analytical equipment and to Dr David Liu for his help with TEM imaging Funding for this research was provided by FRQNT—Project de recherche en équipe T Seelert and D Ghosh were supported by a Eugenie Ulmer Lamothe and FQRNTPBEEE Scholarships respectively
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