Biohydrogen production from palm oil mill effluent using immobilized Clostridium butyricum EB6 in polyethylene glycol

A novel polyethylene glycol (PEG) gel was fabricated and used as a carrier to immobilize Clostridium butyricum EB6 to improve biohydrogen (bio-H-2) production from palm oil mill effluent (POME). POME is used as a substrate that can act as a carbon source. The resulting PEG-immobilized cells were found to yield 5.35 LH2/L-POME, and the maximum H-2 production rate was 510 mL H-2/L-POME h (22.7 mmol/L h). The Monod-type kinetic model was used to describe the effect of substrate (POME) concentration on the H-2 production rate. The acclimation of immobilized cells greatly improved H-2 production. Batch experiments demonstrated that particle size of PEG-immobilized cells for efficient H-2 production 3 mm. It is significant that this is the first report on whole-cell immobilization in PEG for H-2 production from POME. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.