Feasibility study on bioreactor strategies for enhanced photohydrogen production from Rhodopseudomonas palustris WP3-5 using optical-fiber-assisted illumination systems

A novel photobioreactor (PBR) was utilized to produce H-2 by indigenous purple nonsulfur bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris WP3-5 using acetate as the sole carbon source. The PBR was illuminated by combinative light sources including side-light optical fibers (internal light source) as well as external irradiation of halogen lamp and/or tungsten filament lamp. A fill and draw (F/D) operation of PBR was shown to improve the performance of photoH(2) production over the performance of batch and continuous cultures under similar operation conditions. For medium improvement, the PBR was conducted under different concentrations of carbon source (acetate) and nitrogen source (glutamic acid). The results show that the highest overall H-2 production rate (nu H-2) and H-2 yield (Y-H2) Occurred when the acetate concentration was 32.5 mmol/l and the glutamic acid concentration was 400 mg/l. The optimal acetate and glutamic acid concentration led to a nu(H2) and Y-H2 of 20.9 ml/hl and 2.47mol H-2/mol acetate, respectively. The H-2 production rate and yield was further enhanced to as high as 38.2ml/hl and 3.15 mol H-2/mol acetate, respectively, while using a ternary-light-source (TLS) system, combining optical fiber, halogen lamp, and tungsten filament lamp (i.e., the OF/HL/TL system). Meanwhile, the high H-2 production efficiency with TLS system was stably maintained for nearly 30day under the F/D operations. (c) 2006 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.