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Dark fermentation is the fermentative conversion of organic substrate to
biohydrogen Biohydrogen is hydrogen, H2 that is produced biologically. Interest is high in this technology because H2 is a clean fuel and can be readily produced from certain kinds of biomass, including biological waste. Furthermore some photosynthetic micro ...
. It is a complex process manifested by diverse groups of
bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...
, involving a series of
biochemical Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, ...
reactions using three steps similar to anaerobic conversion. Dark fermentation differs from photofermentation in that it proceeds without the presence of
light Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be visual perception, perceived by the human eye. Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400– ...
.


Overview

Fermentative/hydrolytic microorganisms hydrolyze complex organic polymers to monomers which are further converted to a mixture of lower-molecular-weight organic acids and alcohols by obligatory producing acidogenic bacteria. Utilization of
wastewater Wastewater (or waste water) is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking water or saline water in a variety of deliberate applications or processes. Another definition of wastewater is "Used water from any combination of do ...
as a potential substrate for
biohydrogen Biohydrogen is hydrogen, H2 that is produced biologically. Interest is high in this technology because H2 is a clean fuel and can be readily produced from certain kinds of biomass, including biological waste. Furthermore some photosynthetic micro ...
production has been drawing considerable interest in recent years especially in the dark fermentation process. Industrial wastewater as a fermentative substrate for H2 production addresses most of the criteria required for substrate selection viz., availability, cost and biodegradability. Chemical wastewater (Venkata Mohan, ''et al.'', 2007a,b), cattle wastewater (Tang, ''et al.'', 2008), dairy process wastewater (Venkata Mohan, ''et al.'' 2007c, Rai et al. 2012), starch hydrolysate wastewater (Chen, ''et al.'', 2008) and designed synthetic wastewater (Venkata Mohan, ''et al.'', 2007a, 2008b) have been reported to produce biohydrogen apart from
wastewater treatment Wastewater treatment is a process which removes and eliminates contaminants from wastewater. It thus converts it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once back in the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on ...
from dark fermentation processes using selectively enriched mixed
culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...
s under acidophilic conditions. Various wastewaters viz., paper mill wastewater (Idania, ''et al.'', 2005), starch effluent (Zhang, ''et al.'', 2003), food processing wastewater (Shin ''et al.'', 2004, van Ginkel, ''et al.'', 2005), domestic wastewater (Shin, ''et al.'', 2004, 2008e), rice winery wastewater (Yu ''et al.'', 2002), distillery and molasses based wastewater (Ren, ''et al.'', 2007, Venkata Mohan, ''et al.'', 2008a), wheat straw wastes (Fan, ''et al.'', 2006) and palm oil mill wastewater (Vijayaraghavan and Ahmed, 2006) have been studied as fermentable substrates for H2 production along with wastewater treatment. Using wastewater as a fermentable substrate facilitates both wastewater treatment apart from H2 production. The efficiency of the dark fermentative H2 production process was found to depend on pre-treatment of the mixed consortia used as a biocatalyst, operating pH, and organic loading rate apart from wastewater characteristics (Venkata Mohan, ''et al.'', 2007d, 2008c, d, Vijaya Bhaskar, ''et al.'', 2008d). In spite of its advantages, the main challenge observed with fermentative H2 production processes is the relatively low energy conversion efficiency from the organic source. Typical H2 yields range from 1 to 2  mol of H2/mol of
glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecular formula , which is often abbreviated as Glc. It is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. It is mainly made by plants and most algae d ...
, which results in 80-90% of the initial
COD Cod (: cod) is the common name for the demersal fish genus ''Gadus'', belonging to the family (biology), family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gad ...
remaining in the wastewater in the form of various volatile organic acids (VFAs) and solvents, such as
acetic acid Acetic acid , systematically named ethanoic acid , is an acidic, colourless liquid and organic compound with the chemical formula (also written as , , or ). Vinegar is at least 4% acetic acid by volume, making acetic acid the main compone ...
,
propionic acid Propionic acid (, from the Greek language, Greek words πρῶτος : ''prōtos'', meaning "first", and πίων : ''píōn'', meaning "fat"; also known as propanoic acid) is a naturally occurring carboxylic acid with chemical formula . It is a ...
,
butyric acid Butyric acid (; from , meaning "butter"), also known under the systematic name butanoic acid, is a straight-chain alkyl carboxylic acid with the chemical formula . It is an oily, colorless liquid with an unpleasant odor. Isobutyric acid (2-met ...
, and
ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...
. Even under optimal conditions about 60-70% of the original organic matter remains in solution. Bioaugmentation with selectively enriched acidogenic consortia to enhance H2 production was also reported (Venkata Mohan, ''et al.'', 2007b). Generation and accumulation of soluble acid metabolites causes a sharp drop in the system pH and inhibits the H2 production process. Usage of unutilized
carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...
sources present in acidogenic process for additional biogas production sustains the practical applicability of the process. One way to utilize/recover the remaining organic matter in a usable form is to produce additional H2 by terminal integration of photo-fermentative processes of H2 production (Venkata Mohan, ''et al.'' 2008e, Rai et al. 2012) and methane by integrating acidogenic processes to terminal methanogenic processes.


See also

*
Biogas Biogas is a gaseous renewable energy source produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste, Wastewater treatment, wastewater, and food waste. Biogas is produced by anaerobic ...
*
Biohydrogen Biohydrogen is hydrogen, H2 that is produced biologically. Interest is high in this technology because H2 is a clean fuel and can be readily produced from certain kinds of biomass, including biological waste. Furthermore some photosynthetic micro ...
* Biological hydrogen production (algae) *
Biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...
* Electrohydrogenesis *
Fermentation (biochemistry) Fermentation is a type of anaerobic metabolism which harnesses the redox potential of the reactants to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and organic end products. Organic molecules, such as glucose or other sugars, are catabolized and reduce ...
* Microbial fuel cell


References

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External links


Bio-hydrogen production from wastewater
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