ALBERT

Description: Food waste along with its two individual components, noodle waste and rice waste, were tested for bio-hydrogen production by using sludge as a source of mix consortia of Clostridium under different physical conditions (pH 5, 6, and 7; temperature 37 °C and 55 °C). The increase in pH increased the bio-hydrogen yield for all tested wastes, whereas an increase in temperature increased the bio-hydrogen yield just for food waste. The highest experimental yield of 115.76 ml/VS removed was produced in the mesophilic noodle waste reactor at pH 7. The drop in pH from 7 to 4.8 ± 0.2 was found optimum for bio-hydrogen production for all tested wastes under mesophilic as well as thermophilic conditions. Most of the hydrogen production was observed within 72 h of incubation, which can be used as the optimum bio-hydrogen production period for food waste. The bio-hydrogen yield, final volatile fatty acids (VFA), and glucose consumption at 72 h were analyzed with the help of the response surface methodology. The resultant plots represented an increase in glucose consumption with the increase in pH from 5 till pH 6 ± 0.5, after which glucose consumption started to decrease up to pH 7. The final VFA represented a similar trend as that observed for glucose except that the change in VFA production was observed due to the temperature and transition was observed at 47.5 ± 1.5 °C for food waste as well as for noodle waste.