2001 Technology for a Sustainable Environment: NSF/EPA Partnership: Biological hydrogen production as a sustainable green technology for pollution prevention (TSE01-D)

Pennsylvania State Univ University Park, University Park PA

Investigators

Abstract

0124674 Logan This project is to develop a new technology to create a biologically based source of clean hydrogen from wastewater. The main barrier to efficient conversion of dissolved organic matter in wastewater is preventing interspecies hydrogen transfer so that hydrogen generated through fermentation processes is not lost to anaerobic microorganisms. To prevent interspecies transfer, the microbes responsible for fermentation will be separated from those responsible for methane production using a two-tank membrane bioreactor. The purpose of the membrane is to control cell detention time in the first reactor so that slow-growing methanogens are not able to exist in the first tank and will therefore be unable to significantly degrade the hydrogen produced from fermentation. The reactor is to be operated in a mode that has been shown to limit membrane biofouling in suspended growth reactors.