(334a) Application of Ultrasound with Various Pretreatments to Improve Biological Hydrogen Production From Food Waste

Biological hydrogen production from waste has a great potential to meet the growing energy demand as well as to mitigate environmental pollution. However, one of the major limitations of biological hydrogen production technology is lower hydrogen yield. This study has been done to investigate the impact of ultrasound with thermal, acid and base pretreatment on biological hydrogen production via dark fermentation of food waste. Four individual pretreatment methods: ultrasound, thermal, acid, and base and three combined pretreatments combining ultrasound with heat (UH), ultrasound with acid (UA), and ultrasound with base (UB) were conducted. The effect of pretreatments has been evaluated in terms of solubilization of food waste and the improvement in biological hydrogen production without using extra seed. Compared to the control, ultrasound with base UB pretreatment provided the highest increase in soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) 33%. However, the relative ranking of pretreatment based on the hydrogen production is: UA > Ultrasound> UH > Heat or Thermal > UB > Acid > Base.