Mathematical model of biohydrogen production in anaerobic co-digestion processes

Abstract

In Argentina, large quantities of organic waste are generated from agro-industrial production. Poor management of this waste can cause great damage to the environment. Therefore, there are several biological methods that allow for proper treatment, such as anaerobic co-digestion. Anaerobic treatment is a clean and sustainable technology, from which value-added by-products are obtained (biol, biogas and digest). In one of the first stages of this process, Biohydrogen is generated. In this work, the generation of Biohydrogen through dark fermentation (thermophilic) from the co-digestion of bovine manure with a type of bagasse (pear) was evaluated, and a mathematical adjustment was made, using an adapted model, to describe the cumulative progress of Hydrogen production in a discontinuous process. Bovine manure was used as inoculum and co-substrate, and allowed the start of the biological Hydrogen production process. The results obtained fit the proposed kinetic model, with a correlation coefficient of more than 0.90.