Piyush Parkhey
National Institute Of Technology, India
Title: Biohydrogen production from rice straw using a designed single chambered microbial electrolytic cell reactor
Biography
Biography: Piyush Parkhey
Abstract
A single chambered microbial electrolytic cell reactor (MECR) of working volume 2L was designed using acrylic plastic sheets for hydrogen production by electrohydrogenesis. Initially, Lysinibacillus sphaericus, an aerobic cellulolytic bacterium was isolated from dairy wastewater and its cellulolytic potential was characterized. The isolate produced 5.16 ± 0.07 U/ml CMCase. Rice straw was procured from rice fields and pretreated with microwave assisted alkali pretreatment method. Cellulose recovery was calculated to be 82.08 ± 0.3%. Cellulase preparation was used to hydrolyze the pretreated rice straw. A percent saccharification of 69.5% was observed. HPLC analysis revealed that hydrolysate produced at optimal conditions of saccharification constituted 70.8% of glucose. The hydrolysate thus obtained was used as feed in the designed MECR for hydrogen production by the process of electrohydrogenesis. Graphite sheet were used as anode and a stainless-steel mesh was used as cathode in the reactor. Shewanella putrefaciens (MTCC 3525) was used as exoelectrogen to oxidize rice straw hydrolysate in the reactor for electrohydrogenesis. The maximum H2 yield of 695 ml H2 g-1 COD removal with an energy efficiency of 65% was recorded